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Massive crowds gathered in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday for the funeral of a slain student leader, held under tight security after two days of protests and violence.Tens of thousands of people joined the funeral procession to pay their respects to Sharif Osman Hadi, a key figure in last year’s pro-democracy uprising who was set to contest the general elections in February.He was shot by masked gunmen last week while leaving a mosque in Dhaka, and died in a hospital in Singapore on Thursday.”You are in our hearts and you will remain in the heart of all Bangladeshis as long as the country exists,” interim leader Muhammad Yunus said in an emotional speech in front of the parliament building, where funeral prayers were held.Police wearing body cameras were deployed in the area, and flags were flown at half-mast to mark a day of state mourning.Hadi’s body was then buried at the central mosque of Dhaka University.Hadi, 32, was an outspoken critic of India, where Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has taken refuge since fleeing Dhaka in the wake of the 2024 uprising.Iqbal Hossain Saikot, a government employee who travelled to the capital to attend the funeral, told AFP that he believed Hadi was killed because of his staunch opposition to India.”The millions of Bangladeshi people who love the land and its sovereign territory” will carry on Hadi’s legacy, said Saikot, 34.Hadi’s death has triggered unrest, with protesters across the South Asian nation demanding the arrest of those responsible.Bangladeshi police said they had launched a manhunt for his killers but have yet to report progress.As news of Hadi’s death spread on Thursday, people set fire to several buildings in Dhaka including the offices of leading newspapers Prothom Alo and the Daily Star, accused by critics of favouring India.- ‘Anarchy’ -Cultural institutions and the residence of a former minister were also attacked by rampaging mobs.Fuelled in part by growing anti-India sentiments in the majority Muslim nation, the violence this week also saw a Hindu garment worker killed following allegations of blasphemy.Yunus said seven suspects had been arrested in connection with the killing of the worker, Dipu Chandra Das, in the central district of Mymensingh on Thursday.Rights group Amnesty International on Saturday expressed alarm over Das’s “lynching”, while urging Bangladesh’s interim government to carry out “prompt, thorough, independent and impartial” investigations into Hadi’s killing and the violence that followed.Political parties across the spectrum condemned the violence and expressed concern over public order and security in the build-up to the elections — Bangladesh’s first polls since Hasina’s autocratic government was ousted.The Bangladesh Nationalist Party accused a “long-identified group” — a likely reference to Hasina’s Awami League party — of “trying to push the country towards anarchy”.Awami League has been banned from contesting in the upcoming polls.Nahid Islam, convener of the National Citizen Party set up largely by students who took part in the 2024 uprising, slammed the government for failing to rein in rogue elements.”There are elements within the government opposed to the mass uprising, and they are actively at play,” he said in a statement.Ties between neighbours Bangladesh and India have deteriorated since the uprising, with Dhaka demanding New Delhi extradite Hasina, who has been sentenced to death in absentia after being charged with crimes against humanity.Hasina, 78, has denounced her trial and the verdict, calling it a “travesty of justice” and vowed to continue serving her people.At a protest on Friday, a 20-year-old student told AFP he believed Hadi’s killers were also hiding in India.

Indian selectors dropped Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill on Saturday from the T20 squad for the World Cup in February after a prolonged form slump.Gill, 26, has scored only 291 runs in his past 15 matches in the game’s shortest format at an average of 24.25.”Shubman Gill is short of runs at the moment,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar told reporters in Mumbai.  However, batter Suryakumar Yadav was retained as captain despite similar concerns over his form.A T20 specialist, Suryakumar has managed just 244 runs across his last 22 innings in the format, without a single fifty.”We have full faith in our captain to deliver during the World Cup,” Agarkar said.Suryakumar acknowledged that his “rough patch” had been going on for too long.”I know what to do. I have time to fix it. We will definitely see Surya the batter,” the captain said.All-rounder Axar Patel was named as Suryakumar’s deputy.Wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan was rewarded for his stellar form in domestic cricket with a spot in the 15-member squad. Kishan last played for India in 2023.The same team will also play five home T20Is against New Zealand from January 21, the last round of international matches before the World Cup.The 10th edition of the tournament, which will be hosted by Sri Lanka and India, will feature 20 nations.India are the defending champions, having beaten South Africa in a thrilling 2024 final in Barbados.World T20 squad:Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Axar Patel (vice-capt) Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan.

Tens of thousands of mourners gathered in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Saturday for the funeral of a student leader, after two days of violent protests over his killing.Huge crowds accompanied the funeral procession of Sharif Osman Hadi, a key figure in last year’s pro-democracy uprising who died in a hospital in Singapore on Thursday after being shot by masked gunmen while leaving a Dhaka mosque.Police wearing body cameras were deployed in front of the parliament building where the funeral prayers were held.Hadi’s body, which was brought to the capital on Friday, was buried at the central mosque of Dhaka University.”We have not come here to say goodbye,” interim leader Muhammad Yunus said in an emotional speech. “You are in our hearts and you will remain in the heart of all Bangladeshis as long as the country exists.”Hadi, 32, was an outspoken critic of India and was set to contest the general elections in February.Iqbal Hossain Saikot, a government employee who travelled from afar to attend the prayers, said Hadi was killed because he staunchly opposed India.He will continue to live “among the millions of Bangladeshi people who love the land and its sovereign territory”, Saikot, 34, told AFP.Hadi’s death has triggered widespread unrest, with protesters across the South Asian nation demanding the arrest of those responsible.Late Thursday, people set fire to several buildings in Dhaka including the offices of leading newspapers Prothom Alo and the Daily Star.Critics accuse the publications of favouring neighbouring India, where Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has taken refuge since fleeing Dhaka in the wake of the 2024 uprising.Rights group Amnesty International on Saturday urged Bangladesh’s interim government to carry out “prompt, thorough, independent and impartial” investigations into Hadi’s killing and the violence that followed.It also expressed alarm over the lynching of Hindu garment worker Dipu Chandra Das following allegations of blasphemy.Yunus said seven suspects had been arrested in connection with Das’s killing in the central district of Mymensingh on Thursday. 

Hardik Pandya led India’s batting assault with his 16-ball 50 to set up a 30-run win over South Africa and clinch the series 3-1 in the fifth T20 on Friday.A punishing 105-run fourth partnership between Pandya, who hammered 63 off off 25 balls, and Tilak Varma (73) swept India to 231-5 at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad.In reply, South Africa started strongly thanks to a 35-ball 65 by Quinton de Kock, who played his 100th T20 for the national team, but the opener’s departure triggered a collapse and the Proteas ended on 201-8.The win sealed India’s eighth consecutive T20 series triumph, a streak that began in December 2023.”From the start of the series, we wanted to stick to a particular brand of cricket and we did exactly that,” said India skipper Suryakumar Yadav.”We wanted to express ourselves in all departments and the results are right there in front of everyone.”South Africa began the tour with a stunning 2-0 triumph in the Test series but the white ball contests proved disappointing as they also lost the one-day series 2-1.Pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah returned figures of 2-17 including the key wicket of De Kock who chipped a yorker straight back to him.Spinner Varun Chakravarthy took four wickets, bowling Donovan Ferreira and George Linde. He returned with 10 wickets in four matches to be named player of the series.The series was part of the build-up for the T20 World Cup which starts in February in India and Sri Lanka.Put in to bat after the fourth match was abandoned due to fog in Lucknow, Indian openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma started briskly before Pandya tore into the opposition attack.Seam bowler Corbin Bosch cut short left-handed Abhishek’s knock on 34 and Samson fell for 37, bowled off left-arm spinner Linde.- Suryakumar’s batting flop -India lost their third wicket when Suryakumar got out for five to extend his lean run with the bat.T20 specialist Suryakumar has managed just 244 runs across his last 22 innings in this format with no fifties.”Only thing is we couldn’t find Surya the batter, I think he’s missing somewhere,” said Suryakumar. “But he’ll come back strong.”Pandya walked in and smacked Bosch for a six to signal his intent with the bat and in the next over hammered Linde for two sixes and two fours and was named player of the match.The middle-order batter registered India’s second fastest T20 fifty, behind Yuvraj Singh’s record 12-ball half-century in 2007.The left-handed Varma also impressed with his clean hitting but Pandya’s carnage that included five fours and five sixes stole the show.Pandya finally fell to Ottneil Baartman and Varma got run out on the penultimate ball but the pair helped India add 116 runs from the last eight overs.Vice-captain Shubman Gill missed the match after he injured his right foot while batting in the nets in Lucknow.In the South African chase, De Kock’s 51-run second-wicket partnership with Dewald Brevis, who made 31 off 17 balls, gave the Proteas hope but regular wickets and a rising asking-rate proved too much.”230 was always gonna require a near-to-perfect chase,” said South Africa skipper Aiden Markram. “Top three set it up, middle-order couldn’t take it forward. But these lessons could prove to be very valuable looking ahead to the World Cup.”

The International Monetary Fund said Friday that its board has approved $206 million in emergency financing for Sri Lanka, to help in the country’s recovery from the devastating Cyclone Ditwah.The natural disaster killed more than 640 people, and affected more than 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population. Floods and landslides caused by the cyclone left extensive damage throughout the South Asian island nation.”The disaster has created urgent humanitarian and reconstruction needs, generating significant fiscal pressures and balance-of-payments needs,” IMF deputy managing director Kenji Okamura said in a statement.The IMF’s emergency aid — which comes under the Washington-based lender’s rapid financing instrument — is meant to help address these pressures, he added.The announcement comes a day after Sri Lanka’s government unveiled plans for $1.6 billion in additional spending next year to fund cyclone recovery.While it is still early for a firm assessment, the fund’s mission chief for Sri Lanka, Evan Papageorgiou, flagged a likely hit to economic activity in the short-term.”Agriculture and tourism are key sectors in Sri Lanka’s growth and are being hit the hardest,” he told reporters in a briefing.”Inflation is likely to rise due to supply disruptions, and the current account deficit will likely widen over the next year,” he added.The government had also secured a World Bank agreement to repurpose $120 million from an ongoing project for disaster recovery spending.Separately, it got a $200 million loan from the Asian Development Bank to finance water management, the first such funding since the cyclone.The IMF said Friday that Sri Lankan authorities are still committed to their economic reform program aided by support of around $3 billion.A further tranche of this rescue package known as the Extended Fund Facility was coming up when the cyclone hit.The IMF said it has deferred the fifth review of the package, with a team set to visit Sri Lanka in early 2026 to resume discussions. It noted this deferment took place due to the time needed to assess the cyclone’s economic impact and examine how an IMF-supported program can best support Sri Lanka’s recovery and reconstruction efforts — while preserving policy priorities.

Protesters rallied across Bangladesh on Friday for a second straight day calling for the arrest of the gunmen who shot and killed a key figure in last year’s pro-democracy uprising.As news spread that 32-year-old student leader Sharif Osman Hadi died in hospital in Singapore on Thursday, crowds took to the streets in an outpouring of mourning and anger.Several buildings were vandalised including the offices of media outlets deemed to favour India — an old ally of Bangladesh’s ousted leadership.Hadi, a staunch critic of India, was shot by masked gunmen while leaving a mosque in the capital Dhaka last week. He was initially wounded and flown to Singapore for treatment, but eventually succumbed to his wounds.UN rights chief Volker Turk called on Friday for a “prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent” investigation.In Dhaka, protester Sajid Al Adeeb told AFP that “people have gathered here demanding the swift arrest of those who killed Hadi.”The 20-year-old student said the killers were “currently in India” — a claim which New Delhi has not commented on.”I urge the government to take immediate and appropriate steps to arrest those responsible,” he added.”Above all, I want Hadi’s ideals to live on.”Protests were also held in the cities of Gazipur, Sylhet and Chattogram on Friday.Hadi’s remains were brought to Dhaka on Friday evening ahead of a funeral planned for the following day.- ‘Justice’ -The customary funeral prayer will be performed on Saturday in front of the parliament building, the government said.Hadi’s body will then be placed at the central mosque of Dhaka University to allow people to pay their last respects before his burial there.Amir Hossain, Hadi’s brother-in-law, told AFP that the family wanted justice.”We don’t need anything except justice. The perpetrators must be punished,” Hossain said.The UN’s Turk said in a statement that “he was deeply troubled” by Hadi’s killing.”Retaliation and revenge will only deepen divisions and undermine the rights of all,” he said.”I urge the authorities to conduct a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation into the attack that led to Hadi’s death, and to ensure due process and accountability for those responsible.”Ahead of the funeral, security has been beefed up in the capital with strict restriction on flying drones around the parliament building.The US embassy in Dhaka urged its citizens to remain vigilant and “remember that gatherings intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence”.Late Thursday, people set fire to several buildings in Dhaka including the offices of leading newspapers Prothom Alo and the Daily Star.Critics accuse the publications of favouring neighbouring India, where Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has taken refuge since fleeing Dhaka in the wake of the 2024 uprising.- ‘Can’t breathe’ -Staff trapped in the Daily Star newsroom said the building quickly filled with smoke.”I can’t breathe anymore… You are killing me,” reporter Zyma Islam wrote on Facebook, before firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control and rescue the employees.Sajjad Sharif, executive editor at Prothom Alo, called it “an attack on freedom of the press, expression, dissent and diversity of opinion”.The interim government, led by the 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, spoke to the editors of the two newspapers on Friday and condemned the vandalism.The government also urged citizens to resist all forms of mob violence which it said was committed by a few “fringe elements”.”This is a critical moment in our nation’s history when we are making a historic democratic transition,” a government statement said.”We cannot and must not allow it to be derailed by those few who thrive on chaos and reject peace.”On Wednesday, before Hadi’s death, protesters demanding Hasina be returned to Bangladesh marched toward the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, in the latest sign of strained ties between the neighbours since the fall of her autocratic government.Hadi, a leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha, was running for a parliament seat in the February 2026 national election.Bangladeshi police said they had launched a manhunt for his killers.sa-rtm-abh-bb/ami

Firefighters pulled journalists from their burning newsroom on Friday after the building was set ablaze during violent demonstrations in Bangladesh’s capital.Thousands of protesters were brought to the streets by the assassination of a youth leader running for parliament in upcoming national elections. A key figure in last year’s uprising, Sharif Osman Hadi, 32, was shot by masked gunmen while leaving a mosque in Dhaka last week.After he died in hospital on Thursday, his supporters gathered in Dhaka demanding the killers be brought to justice.  Several buildings, including those housing leading newspapers Prothom Alo and the Daily Star, were set on fire and vandalised, according to authorities.Staff trapped in the Daily Star newsroom described being unable to escape as the building filled with smoke.”I can’t breathe anymore. There’s too much smoke. I am inside. You are killing me,” reporter Zyma Islam wrote on her Facebook page.Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control at 1:40 am (1940 GMT on Thursday), with 27 employees rescued from the smouldering building. “For the first time in the newspaper’s history, the publication had to be halted,” consulting editor Kamal Ahmed told AFP.At the Prothom Alo, executive editor Sajjad Sharif said he was “deeply saddened” that the newspaper could not be published due to vandalism and arson.”This attack is not merely an attack on Prothom Alo and the Daily Star, it’s an attack on freedom of the press, expression, dissent and diversity of opinion,” he said.Critics of the papers, the largest in the South Asian country, accuse them of favouring neighbouring India, where Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has taken refuge since quitting in 2024.The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was alarmed by the violence against the press.”CPJ is monitoring the situation and urges Bangladeshi authorities to ensure the safety of news outlets and journalists, and to hold those responsible accountable,” it said in a statement.Hadi, a leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha, was also an outspoken critic of India.After he was shot in Dhaka on December 12, he was airlifted to Singapore, where authorities later announced he had succumbed to his wounds.Inqilab Mancha distanced itself from the violence that erupted at the Dhaka protests, blaming opportunists for trying to derail the demonstrations.”They essentially want to turn Bangladesh into a dysfunctional state through vandalism and arson,” the group said in a statement posted to social media.”They want to endanger the independence and sovereignty of this country.”Bangladeshi police have launched a manhunt for Hadi’s shooters, releasing photographs of two key suspects and offering a reward of five million taka (about $42,000) for information leading to their arrest.

A renowned Kabul cinema that for decades attracted the city’s film fans is being demolished to make way for a shopping mall, AFP journalists saw Thursday.Built in the 1960s, the Ariana was pillaged and destroyed in Afghanistan’s civil war of 1992-1996, before a French-led restoration effort that saw it reopen in 2004. But with the return in 2021 of Taliban authorities and their ban of films, music and other entertainment under their strict interpretation of Islamic law, the cinema was given over to the occasional propaganda film before being shut for good. On Thursday, a bulldozer smashed walls amid piles of rubble at the site. A banner stated that a “standard modern market is going to be built”.”It shattered my heart, the news of the demolition of the Ariana Cinema. We had a lot of good memories from the cinema,” a 65-year-old Kabul resident, who declined to give her name for security reasons, told AFP. In the 1970s it used to screen “Indian, Iranian movies in the early years; later on, they also started to screen Russian, English, French, and European movies as well”, the woman said. “They used to screen revolutionary movies, movies that showed the struggle of the people, and people used to watch them with a lot of passion.”The restoration work in 2004 was overseen by the French architects Frederic Namur and Jean-Marc Lalo, and financed by an association led by French director Claude Lelouch, who won the Palme d’Or top prize at Cannes in 1966 for “A Man and a Woman”.French-Afghan writer and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, whose first movie was shown at the Ariana in 2004, was heartbroken at the news.”The Ariana cinema was not a ruin to be demolished, but a memory to be revived. It was already destroyed once by the civil war. This time, it’s worse: it’s being erased in the name of ‘modernity’. A soulless modernity, without images, without shared silence in the dark,” Rahimi told AFP from exile. When his movie was playing at the Ariana, “we believed, for a moment, that culture could survive barbarism. Razing a cinema is not building the future.”Another Kabul movie house, Park Cinema, has already been demolished, also to be replaced by a mall. 

Bangladesh police on Thursday stopped protesters from marching towards an Indian diplomatic mission, a day after India’s foreign ministry conveyed its concerns over the “deteriorating” security environment in the country. Ties between the two countries have been frosty since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India following a student-led uprising last year. Dhaka has repeatedly asked for her extradition so that she could stand trial for her alleged crimes, with Delhi responding that it was examining the requests.On Thursday, dozens of demonstrators began marching towards the assistant Indian high commissioner office in Rajshahi district which borders India.Miftahul Jannat, one of the protesters, said the plan was to carry out a sit-in, demanding the “repatriation of all the killers including Sheikh Hasina”. The protest was stalled by the police, who said they “listened to their demands and promised to forward them to the authorities”. “We are not aware of any further plans (for demonstrations) and hope the issue will be resolved peacefully,” Nashid Farhad, a senior officer with the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, told AFP.On Wednesday, a group of protesters tried to march towards the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. India’s foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Bangladesh’s top diplomat in New Delhi to convey its concerns about the actions of some “extremist elements”.In a statement, the ministry also said it expected the interim government under Muhammad Yunus to “ensure the safety of missions and posts in Bangladesh in keeping with its diplomatic obligations”. Hasina, 78, was sentenced to death in absentia by a Bangladesh court last month for crimes against humanity. The country of 170 million people goes to the polls on February 12, with Hasina’s former ruling party, the Awami League, banned from running. 

Members of ousted Nepali prime minister KP Sharma Oli’s political party voted for him to retain leadership of the organisation on Thursday, meaning he will oversee its preparations for national elections next year.Members of the Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) cast their ballots during a two-day general convention in the capital Kathmandu, which Oli won by a landslide. The 73-year-old political veteran’s success comes after he stepped down as prime minister during a September youth-led uprising that toppled his government. Nepal will hold elections in March with a caretaker administration running the country in the meantime. Oli bagged nearly three times more votes than his nearest competitor, Ishwar Pokhrel, securing 1,663 votes compared to Pokhrel’s 564, Rajendra Gautam, the head of the party’s publicity department, told AFP.Oli, often known by his initials “KP”, has carefully crafted an image as his party’s supreme leader, with life-size cutouts and banners of “KP Ba (father), we love you” seen at some of his rallies.”I am happy he won,” Tara Maya Thapa Magar, 45, who came from Gandaki province in western Nepal to participate in the convention, told AFP.”He is the need of the hour for the nation.” – ‘Make the country prosperous’ -The four-time prime minister quit office shortly after angry protesters set fire to his house and hundreds of other buildings, including the parliament and courts, during the September protests.Oli wrote in his resignation letter that he hoped him stepping down would help “towards a political solution and resolution of the problems”.At least 77 people were killed during the unrest that was triggered by anger over a brief government ban on social media, building on public frustration after years of economic stagnation and allegations of entrenched political corruption.”The incident that occurred is due to international interference. It is only through Oli’s leadership that we can overcome this setback and make the country prosperous,” said Magar.After Oli’s ouster, 73-year-old former chief justice Sushila Karki was appointed interim prime minister to lead the Himalayan nation until the March 5 elections. The government has imposed a travel ban on Oli, as well as several other former top officials, as a government commission investigates his role in the deadly crackdown on protesters. Nepal’s political future remains uncertain, with deep public distrust of established parties posing a major challenge to holding credible elections.Karki has promised to create a “fair and fear-free” environment for the polls.