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Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since a student-led revolt overthrew former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, ending her 15-year autocratic rule.The Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people will hold its first elections since the uprising on February 12.Here are the key players in a vote that European Union election observers say will be the “biggest democratic process of 2026, anywhere”.- Interim government -Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 85, returned from exile in August 2024 at the behest of protesters to lead a caretaker government as “chief advisor”. He will step down after the polls.Yunus said he inherited a “completely broken” political system, and championed a reform charter he argues is vital to prevent a return to authoritarian rule.A referendum on the proposed changes will be held on the same day. He says the reforms will strengthen checks and balances between the executive, judicial and legislative branches. – Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -The BNP, led by Tarique Rahman, 60, is widely tipped to win the election, after he returned from 17 years of self-imposed exile in December 2025.His mother, the BNP’s veteran leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, died aged 80, days after his return.A BNP-led alliance includes both leftist and centrist parties, as well as small Islamist groups.- Islamist-led alliance -Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest and best-organised Islamist party, ideologically aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, is seeking a return to formal politics after years of bans and crackdowns under Hasina’s 15-year rule.Jamaat is leading an alliance of more than 10 smaller parties, including the National Citizen Party (NCP), formed by student leaders who spearheaded the uprising.It also includes the small Liberal Democratic Party, as well as fringe Islamist parties, most of which held only a handful of seats in previous parliaments.Bangladesh — one of the world’s mostpopulous Muslim-majority countries after Indonesia and Pakistan– is home to diverse strands of Islamic practice, including a significant Sufi community often condemned by hardline Islamists.Bangladesh also has a small Shia community. Around 10 percent of Bangladeshis are not Muslim — the majority of those are Hindu and the country is also home to a small number of Christians. – Awami League – Hasina, 78, a fugitive in India, was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity in November.Her former ruling Awami League, once the country’s most popular party, has been outlawed.Loyalists may run as independent candidates, but it is unclear who the party’s once sizable membership will back.Human Rights Watch condemned the ban as “draconian”, while Hasina has warned that holding elections without her party would be “sowing the seeds” of further division.- Army – In a country with a long history of military coups, the army remains a pivotal force.It played a decisive factor in Hasina’s downfall, choosing not to intervene against the protests.The military continues to patrol the streets, maintaining a visible presence alongside the police.- International players -Regional powers have taken a keen interest.Bangladesh’s relations with India — once Hasina’s strongest ally — have cooled.Yunus’ first state visit was to China, signalling a strategic shift, while Dhaka has also deepened engagement with Pakistan, India’s arch-rival.

After years of repression, Bangladesh’s Islamist groups are mobilising ahead of February 12 elections, determined to gain a foothold in government as they sense their biggest opportunity in decades. The South Asian nation — home to 170 million people, the vast majority Sunni Muslims — is preparing for its first polls since the mass uprising that toppled the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina in 2024.At the centre of this formidable push is the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest and best-organised Islamist party.Ideologically aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, they are seeking a return to formal politics after years of bans and crackdowns.They have papered over divisions with several other Islamist groups for the election and put forward only male candidates.The Jamaat has also allied with the National Citizen Party (NCP), formed by student leaders who spearheaded the 2024 uprising — prompting some aspiring female candidates to quit.- Troubled past  -Hasina, who was blamed for extensive human rights abuses, took a tough stand against Islamist movements during her 15-year rule.Under her tenure, several top Islamist leaders were sentenced to death — and several hanged — for war crimes.They were accused of having supported Pakistan during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war, a role that still sparks anger against Islamists from many in Bangladesh today.Hasina, a onetime ally of the United States and close to the Hindu-nationalist government of neighbouring India, also launched crackdowns against Islamist militants, killing scores and arresting hundreds.Since 2013, extremist groups inspired by Al-Qaeda or the so-called Islamic State carried out a string of attacks, including targeting writers and publishers. A 2016 attack on a Dhaka cafe killed 22 people, including 17 foreigners.Mufti Abdul Hannan, the Afghanistan-trained leader of the Bangladesh chapter of the Harkat-ul-Jihad group, was executed with two associates in 2017 for an attempt to kill Britain’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh.- Resurgence -Since Hasina fled to India, key Islamist leaders have been released from prison, and Islamist groups have grown increasingly assertive.They have demanded restrictions on cultural activities they consider “anti-Islamic”, including music and theatre festivals, women’s football matches and kite-flying celebrations.More violent elements have smashed Sufi shrines, and even exhumed a Sufi leader’s body and set it on fire.Many are inspired by the Deobandi teachings, a conservative Sunni movement rooted in 19th-century India, and the ideological source of Afghanistan’s Taliban.Hefazat-e-Islam, an influential coalition of thousands of Islamic schools and Muslim organisations, acts as a powerful grassroots pressure group in Bangladesh.Hefazat leaders travelled to Afghanistan last year, and Afghan Taliban officials visited Bangladesh in December.Other strands of Bangaldesh’s Islamist movements follow the rigid Wahabi and Salafi schools of Islam, powerful in the Arabian Peninsula, and which reject centuries-old Bengali cultural rituals.- Sufi opposition -Home to the world’s fourth-largest Muslim population, Bangladesh includes a wide range of beliefs.Bangladesh has a significant number of Sufi followers — more than a quarter of Muslims, according to one estimate by the US Pew Research Center.The country’s two traditional power brokers — the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and the now-banned Awami League of Hasina — previously launched their election campaigns from a centuries-old Sufi shrine in the northern city of Sylhet.Sufi popularity poses a challenge to the Islamists, who condemn their mystical interpretation of the Koran as heretical. Bangladesh also has communities of the long-persecuted Ahmadiyya, as well as Shia Muslims.Around 10 percent of Bangladeshis are not Muslim — the majority of those are Hindu and the country is also home to a small number of Christians. Jamaat-e-Islami has named a Hindu candidate — but analysts are sceptical.”These efforts are to deceive the public. The reform is not coming from within,” political analyst Altaf Parvez told AFP. 

India’s Virat Kohli on Sunday became the second-highest scorer across the three international cricket formats during his match-winning 93 in the first ODI against New Zealand.Kohli went past Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (28,016 runs) to move into second in the list of leading run-scorers in the international game, behind fellow Indian Sachin Tendulkar (34,357).The top-order batter has 28,068 runs in Test, ODI and T20 cricket since he made his debut for India in an ODI in Sri Lanka in 2008.”If I look back at my whole journey then it is nothing short of a dream-come-true for me,” Kohli said after being named man of the match in Vadodara.”I have always known my abilities, but I also knew I had to work extremely hard to get where I am today. God has blessed me with far more than I could ever ask for, I look back at my journey with a lot of grace and gratitude, and I feel really proud of it.”His 91-ball knock in the ODI opener helped India chase down a victory target of 301 with four wickets and six balls to spare to lead the three-match series 1-0.But the in-form Kohli missed out on his 54th ODI ton after he registered his fifth 60-plus score in his last five ODI innings, including two hundreds.”If I am being brutally honest, the way I’m playing right now, I’m not thinking about milestones at all,” the former captain said.”If we were batting first, I probably would’ve gone harder. But in a chase, with a total on the board, I had to play the situation. I felt like hitting more boundaries, but experience kicks in. The only thing on my mind was getting the team into a position where we could win comfortably.”Called King Kohli for his prolific run-scoring, the 37-year-old now only plays the ODI format after he and fellow stalwart Rohit Sharma, 38, retired from T20 and Test cricket.The future of the two stars have been widely debated, with both likely targeting the ODI World Cup in 2027.

Daryl Mitchell hit an attacking 84 to steer New Zealand to 300-8 despite regular strikes by India in the first match of their one-day international series on Sunday.Openers Devon Conway, who made 56, and Henry Nicholls (62) put on 117 after India won the toss and asked New Zealand to bat at the start of the three-match series in Vadodara.New Zealand suffered from a lack of major partnerships after their big opening stand but Mitchell’s 71-ball knock, laced with five fours and three sixes, ensured a challenging total.Pace bowlers Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana and Praisdh Krishna took two wickets each.Conway and Nicholls started strongly to put India on the back foot with good strokes and regular boundaries.Rana broke through to have Nicholls caught behind with a slower delivery outside off stump and then bowled Conway in his next over.Siraj dismissed Will Young for 12 in an inspired second spell.New Zealand slipped again when Kuldeep Yadav sent Glenn Phillips back for 12 and Krishna bowled Mitchell Hay for 18.The in-form Mitchell stood firm to raise his fourth 60-plus score in his past five ODI innings, including two centuries.He was involved in the run-out of skipper Michael Bracewell, who made 16 and departed after a direct throw from Shreyas Iyer.But Mitchell kept up the attack and he hit Krishna for two fours and a six before the bowler had him lbw in the 48th over.Debutant Kristian Clarke made an unbeaten 24 after he put on 42 runs for the eighth wicket with Mitchell.The series will be followed by five T20s ahead of the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka between February 7 and March 8.

Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill on Saturday said he respected the Indian selectors’ shock decision to drop him from the squad for the T20 World Cup on home soil, calling it “destiny”.The 26-year-old will lead the one-day team in three matches against New Zealand starting Sunday in Vadodara before many of India’s players head into a five-match T20 series.Indian selectors surprisingly axed the batsman from the T20 squad after he scored only 291 runs in his past 15 matches in the game’s shortest format at an average of 24.25.”Firstly, it is my belief that in my life, I am where I am supposed to be. Whatever is written in my destiny, I will have it,” Gill told reporters.”As a player I want to win games for my team, but having said that, I respect the selectors’ decision. I wish the T20 team the very best. I hope that they win the World Cup.”India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, are the defending champions in the T20 World Cup which takes place in India and Sri Lanka between February 7 and March 8.Before that, India will play 50-over matches against New Zealand with the spotlight on stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.Kohli and Rohit play only the ODI format since retiring from T20s, following the World Cup triumph in Barbados in 2024, and Test cricket.Gill said the presence of the two greats was invaluable for any captain.”Definitely when you have these two people in your team, it makes your life a lot easier,” said Gill.”And whenever you are in a tough situation, they have been in those kind of situations and conditions many times in their life, so you can always go to them and see how they are thinking or what they would do. “And that piece of information is very valuable for any captain.”The 37-year-old Kohli and Rohit, 38, have been in top batting form in international and domestic cricket, scoring centuries and runs to turn back the clock.Meanwhile, New Zealand’s ODI captain Michael Bracewell is keen to make the most of the Indian conditions ahead of the T20 World Cup.”It’s always fun coming over and playing here,” said Bracewell, a left-hand batter and off-spinner.”A month before the T20 World Cup, getting used to these conditions. You won’t be in the same venue but in general, getting used to the nature of the surfaces that they have.”Bracewell said he will name the playing XI at the toss but confirmed fast bowler Kristian Clarke will make his international debut in the ODI opener. 

Bangladesh cricket said Wednesday it was in talks with governing body the ICC seeking a “practical” solution to its request to move its T20 World Cup matches out of India.India forced Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman to quit the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday, prompting anger in Dhaka.With ties tense between the two countries, Bangladesh wants the ICC to shift their World Cup games from India to co-hosts Sri Lanka, citing security concerns. The World Cup begins on February 7 and Bangladesh are scheduled to play their four group matches in India.Senior Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official Nazmul Abedeen Fahim told AFP on Wednesday that talks were ongoing with the ICC “regarding security issues”.A BCB statement said it would “continue constructive engagement with the ICC and relevant event authorities”, seeking an “affable and practical solution that ensures the smooth and successful participation of the team”.The ICC have not commented.Bangladesh international Mustafizur was snapped up at IPL auction in December by the Kolkata Knight Riders for more than $1 million.But he was let go on the Indian cricket board’s “advice” after what it called “recent developments”.Political relations between India and Bangladesh soured after a mass uprising in Dhaka in 2024 toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, a close ally of New Delhi.India’s foreign ministry last month condemned what it called “unremitting hostility against minorities” in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence.The BCB on Wednesday said it was “firmly committed to placing the highest priority on the safety, security and well-being” of the team.

The fourth edition of the Women’s Premier League launches Friday with the popularity of women’s cricket at an all-time high in India following their maiden World Cup triumph.India’s victory on home soil in November in the 50-over tournament captivated the cricket-crazy nation of 1.4 billion.The WPL, a Twenty20 event, is the cornerstone of the women’s game in the country and sees five teams competing for a place in the February 5 final.National captain Harmanpreet Kaur leads defending champions Mumbai Indians when they open the competition against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.Fellow national stars Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma and Smriti Mandhana join Kaur among the WPL’s marquee names.Overseas stars are also in action after the World Cup, including New Zealand all-rounder Amelia Kerr, South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt and Australia’s Ashleigh Gardner and Phoebe Litchfield.”In the last three years the WPL has grown in leaps and bounds,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Mithun Manhas said.”With the kind of performances they have shown with the World Cup win, I’m sure things will keep on rising for Indian cricket and the WPL.”- ‘New era’ -South Africa and Delhi Capitals fast bowler Marizanne Kapp said that the WPL — the women’s answer to the phenomenally popular IPL — had been a game-changer.”People don’t always understand how important these leagues are for women’s cricket,” Kapp told the Cricbuzz website.”When you look at the youngsters coming through now, a lot of that is thanks to leagues like the WPL.”BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla said that India’s players had caught up with the traditional powers in the women’s game, as evidenced by their first World Cup crown.”Initially Australian, England and South African players, they were doing wonders, and in comparison to them, our players were not of that standard,” Shukla said.”But now I see that they can defeat them.”People never used to send their daughters to play cricket… now I am seeing thousands of girls coming for trial.”Some players’ World Cup exploits translated into big WPL paydays, although they still pale in comparison to IPL numbers.Kerr rejoined Mumbai for $335,000, making her the most expensive overseas buy in last year’s auction.India all-rounder Deepti will turn out for UP Warriorz at $358,000, becoming the joint second-costliest player in league history.Delhi Capitals bolstered their squad with World Cup performers including Rodrigues and Wolvaardt as they chase their maiden WPL title.Bengaluru captain Mandhana and Kaur front major endorsement deals and dominate WPL advertising hoardings.The International Cricket Council (ICC) said the World Cup final marked a “new era” in the game, with the 277 million viewers equalling those watching the last men’s T20 World Cup final.Broadcaster JioStar said there was record-breaking viewership, which it is hoped will translate into viewing figures for the WPL.- Cash windfall -Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League, launched in 2015, helped open doors for women cricketers before the WPL brought an unprecedented financial windfall. Introduced as a curtain-raiser to the IPL, the WPL quickly carved out its own space.The inaugural WPL season in 2023 earned the Indian cricket board about $700 million in franchise and media rights, making it the world’s second most valuable women’s sports league after the WNBA in the United States.Gender parity has long been championed by former BCCI secretary — now ICC chairman — Jay Shah, who introduced equal match fees for men and women.WPL chairman Jayesh George has big dreams.”We should go on par with IPL in the next couple of years,” George said.

In the dense hill forests along Bangladesh’s border with war-torn Myanmar, villagers are losing limbs to landmines, casualties of a conflict not of their making.Ali Hossain, 40, was collecting firewood in early 2025 when a blast shattered his life.”I went into the jungle with fellow villagers. Suddenly, there was an explosion, and my leg was blown off,” he told AFP. “I screamed at the top of my voice.”Neighbours rushed to stem the spurting blood.”They picked me up, gathered my severed leg and took me to hospital”, he said.In Ashartoli, a small settlement in Bandarban district — the village name translates as “haven of hope” — the weapons of a foreign war have turned forests, farms and footpaths deadly.Bangladesh’s 271-kilometre (168-mile) eastern border with Myanmar cuts through forests, much of it unmarked, as well as rivers.It is crossed daily by villagers, as their families have done for generations, for collecting firewood or smalltime trading.Surgeons chopped Hossain’s leg off above the knee.”My wife had to carry me on her back,” he said, gesturing towards the steep hillside around his home, as he recalled the months after the blast.A year later, Hossain walks with an artificial leg and a crutch, but he cannot return to his job on a rubber plantation.Needing 300 taka ($2.50) a day for medicine, his two young sons now take on his former dangerous task, collecting firewood after school.- ‘My whole life’ -Similar stories echo across the border region.”My father and forefathers collected wood from the jungle,” said Mohammad Abu Taleb, 47. “I learned no other trade.”He crossed unwittingly into Myanmar.”I stepped on a pile of dry leaves, and there was an explosion,” he said, leaning on a crutch. “It took away my whole life.”His 10-year-old son has since dropped out of school to help support the family.Taleb said trips to repair his artificial leg and attend medical checkups cost around US$80 — an impossible burden for a family struggling to survive.Nurul Amin, 23, lost his leg while attempting to bring a cow across the border, a memory blurred by pain.”They carried me on their shoulders to the hospital,” he recalls, saying he was more worried that his monthly income had now fallen to around $25-$30. “That’s not enough for a family,” he said. “I have no other way to survive.”- ‘Cruelty’ -Myanmar is the world’s most dangerous country for landmine casualties, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which has detailed the “massive” and growing use of the weapons, banned by many countries.It recorded more than 2,000 casualties in Myanmar in 2024, the latest full statistics available — double the total reported the year before.”The use of mines appeared to significantly increase in 2024–2025,” it said in its Landmine Monitor report, highlighting “an increase in the number of mine victims, particularly near the border” with Bangladesh.Bangladesh accuses Myanmar’s military and rival armed forces of planting the mines.Guerrilla Arakan Army fighters — one of the many factions challenging the junta’s rule — control swathes of jungle across the border with Myanmar.More than a million Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar also live in Bangladesh’s border regions — caught between the warring military and separatist groups.Bangladesh police say that at least 28 people were injured by landmines in 2025.In November, a Bangladesh border guard was killed when a landmine tore off both his legs.”This cruelty cannot be legitimised,” said Lieutenant Colonel Kafil Uddin Kayes, a local Border Guard Bangladesh commander.Bangladesh’s border force has put up warning signs and red flags, and conducts regular mine-sweeping operations.But villagers say warnings offer little protection when survival depends on entering forests seeded with explosives, leaving communities in Bangladesh to pay the price of war.”The population is increasing, and people are moving closer to the border, as we have farmlands there,” said 42-year-old farmer Dudu Mia.”Planting landmines cannot be the solution. It can’t go on like this.”

A Bangladesh commission investigating disappearances during the rule of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina said Monday at least 287 people were assumed to have been killed.The commission said some corpses were believed to have been dumped in rivers, including the Buriganga in the capital, Dhaka, or buried in mass graves.The government-appointed commission, formed after Hasina was toppled by a mass uprising in August 2024, said it had investigated 1,569 cases of abductions, with 287 of the victims presumed dead.”We have identified a number of unmarked graves in several places where the bodies were presumably buried,” Nur Khan Liton, a commission member, told AFP.”The commission has recommended that Bangladesh seek cooperation from forensic experts to identify the bodies and collect and preserve DNA samples from family members.”In its final report, submitted to the government on Sunday, the commission said that security forces had acted under the command of Hasina and her top officials.The report said many of those abducted had belonged to the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), both in opposition to Hasina.In a separate investigation, police in December began exhuming a mass grave in Dhaka.The grave included at least eight victims of the uprising against Hasina, bodies all found with bullet wounds, according to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Md Sibgat Ullah.The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power.She was sentenced to death in absentia in November for crimes against humanity.”We are grateful for finally being able to know where our brother is buried,” said Mohamed Nabil, whose 28-year-old sibling Sohel Rana was identified as one of the dead in the grave in Dhaka.”But we demand a swift trial for the police officials who shot at the people during the uprising.”

Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier.”He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, told AFP at her mud home in Ghunjan village.”We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photo of her son.Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died last month while trying to cross illegally into Iran from Afghanistan’s Herat province, according to officials, when temperatures were around -3C.With earthquakes and drought compounding a daily struggle to survive in Afghanistan, around half the population will need humanitarian assistance this year, according to the United Nations.”There was no other way left for me. I thought, let him go to make our life better,” said Mah Jan, 50, who requested the family’s surname not be published for privacy reasons.Habibullah’s stepbrother, Gul Ahmad, said the teenager had tried shoe polishing but only earned up to 15 afghanis (23 cents) per day.”He was ready to be a shepherd for 2,000 afghanis ($30 a month), to work in a shop, but he found nothing. So he was forced to leave. He told his mother, ‘Let’s trust in God, I’m going to Iran’,” said Gul Ahmad, 56.- ‘Very dangerous’ –  Habibullah was among 15 bodies returned from Iran, an Afghan border source told AFP on condition of anonymity.A further three migrants who died were recovered on the Afghan side of the frontier, an army official said.Over just a matter of days last month, around 1,600 Afghan migrants “who were at risk of perishing due to the weather” were rescued in the mountains, according to Iranian border guard commander Majid Shoja, quoted by the ILNA news agency.They are drawn to Iran due to greater job opportunities and a common language, but legal routes are limited.Afghanistan’s deputy minister for labour and social affairs, Abdul Manan Omari, said Sunday it was “necessary to do more” to facilitate work permits for migrants.Iran and Pakistan have combined sent back five million Afghans since September 2023, increasing the country’s population by 10 percent, according to the International Organization for Migration.The agency’s deputy head in Afghanistan, Mutya Izora Maskun, said that many in the country report “the economy, job insecurity, food insecurity, constrained access to services” force them to leave.They do so even if that means going through “illegal crossing points that are very dangerous due to the cold and the risks of human trafficking”, she told AFP.The Taliban government has taken “serious steps to fight the smugglers”, interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP.But attempts to reach Iran have not stopped.- ‘Destitute’ -In the last week of December, “347 people who were trying to illegally cross the border into Iran were identified and arrested”, a military unit in western Afghanistan said in a statement on Saturday.Abdul Majeed Haidari, whose one-year-old son suffers from a heart problem, tried his luck in mid-December.Working at a brick oven, the 25-year-old could no longer afford to pay for his son’s medication and family expenses.”We left because we were so destitute,” his stepbrother Yunus, who accompanied him, told AFP.”We set out in the rain. In such weather, the radars and cameras of the border guards do not work properly. But the smuggler got lost,” he said.They failed to light a fire for warmth and, as snow fell, Yunus recounted his stepbrother’s words: “I can’t walk anymore.””Some told us to leave him so as not to endanger the other 19 people in the group,” said Yunus, who requested his full name not be used.After carrying him for two more hours, “his eyes stopped closing, his body grew heavier,” Yunus recalled, before an Iranian family drove past and took them to hospital.”They gave him electric shocks, but they said he was already dead,” said Yunus, who has since returned to his village.