Bangladesh

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21355499

Link to original Financial Times page: https://www.ft.com/content/0b295e1e-a0bf-40e0-88f2-99c1ace8603d

From the article:

Bangladesh’s new central bank chief has accused tycoons linked to the toppled regime of Sheikh Hasina of working with members of the country’s powerful military intelligence agency to siphon $17bn out of the banking sector during her rule.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Ahsan Mansur — who was appointed Bangladesh Bank governor after Sheikh Hasina fled the country in June — said the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence had helped force takeovers of leading banks.

Mansur said an estimated Tk2tn ($16.7bn) had been spirited out of Bangladesh after the bank takeovers, using methods such as loans made to their new shareholders and inflated import invoices.

“This is the biggest, highest robbing of banks by any international standards,” he said. “It didn’t happen on that scale anywhere, and it was state-sponsored and it couldn’t have happened without intelligence people putting guns [to former bank CEOs’] heads.”

The governor said Mohammed Saiful Alam, founder and chair of industrial conglomerate S Alam, and his associates had “siphoned off” at least $10bn “as a minimum” from the banking system after taking control of banks with the help of the DGFI. “Every day they were granting loans to themselves,” he said.

Translation: The youth of Bangladesh have never had the opportunity to vote: Dr. Yunus

Most of Bangladesh's 170 million people are young. They never got a chance to vote. So they should be made happy by ensuring democracy, commented Nobel-winning economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

He said this in an interview given to Indian media NDTV. His interview was published on Tuesday (August 6).

Dr. Muhammad Yunus said that the young generation never went to the polling station because those elections did not actually take place in Bangladesh. It must be ensured that the youth understand that there is democracy in the country. Now our first task will be to sit in discussion with the youth.

Regarding the current situation in Bangladesh, he said, if Bangladesh becomes unstable, it will spread like a volcanic eruption in neighboring countries including Myanmar. He also commented that it will affect the Seven Sisters of India.

Yunus, known as the ‘banker to the poor’, is the choice of the student movement to head the new interim government.

কোটা সংস্কার আন্দোলন থেকে শুরু করে সরকার পতনের এক দফা দাবিতে শেষ পর্যন্ত ক্ষমতা ছাড়তে বাধ্য হলেন শেখ হাসিনা। সোমবার (৫ আগস্ট) দুপুর ৩টার দিকে গণভবন ঘেরাও করে সাধারণ ছাত্র-জনতা। এর আগেই পদত্যাগ করে দেশ ছেড়েছেন তিনি।

বিভিন্ন সূত্রের খবর শেখ হাসিনার সাথে দেশ ছেড়েছেন তার বোন শেখ রেহানাও। বঙ্গভবন থেকে একটি হেলিকপ্টারে করে ভারতের ত্রিপুরা রাজ্যের রাজধানী আগরতলার দিকে যান দুই বোন। একাধিক ভারতীয় গণমাধ্যম এটি নিশ্চিত করেছে।

উল্লেখ্য, শিক্ষার্থীদের বৈষম্যবিরোধী ছাত্র আন্দোলনের রেশ শেষ পর্যন্ত সরকার পতনের একদফায় গিয়ে ঠেকে। শতশত শিক্ষার্থী ও সাধারণ মানুষ নিহত হয় গত কয়েকদিনে। সবশেষ ১৫ বছরের আওয়ামী লীগ সরকার শেষ হয় প্রধানমন্ত্রীর দায়িত্বে থাকা শেখ হাসিনার পদত্যাগের মধ্য দিয়ে।