Media reports – August 5, 2024
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flees to India
By Media Reports
Bangalesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned today (Monday) and fled to India by a helicopter after thousands of protesters stormed her palace. Protestors broke through the gates of Sheikh Hasina's official residence, prompting her to flee the country by helicopter.
Sheikh Hasina landed at the Hindon airbase near Ghaziabad and is on her way to London, diplomatic sources have said. She was received by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval at the Hindon airbase, according to NDTV.
Bangladesh's army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said the military would form an interim government.
At least 300 people were killed in more than a month of deadly protests.
Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin said on Monday that an interim government would be formed after dissolving the parliament as he ordered the release of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who is under house arrest after being convicted in several cases.
He made the remarks during a meeting with the leaders of various political parties and civil society representatives at Bangabhaban in the presence of the chief of three forces, the Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo reported.
"A decision has been taken to form an interim government as soon as possible by dissolving parliament. The army will also take measures to normalise the prevailing anarchic situation," the president said.
Al Jazeera report
Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Shahbagh Square – the epicentre of the student protests that began last month – said he has “never witnessed something like this” in the capital.
“Everybody is celebrating, not just students – people from all walks of life. They said this had to happen, there was nothing we could say, democracy was squeezed and now we are free,” Chowdhury said.
The message from the protesters is that whoever comes to power next “will now know that they won’t tolerate any kind of dictatorship or mismanagement and that the students will decide”, he added.
Bangladesh suffered many years of military rule in the 1970s and 80s following the war that secured its independence from Pakistan in 1971, and many are wary of the danger of a return.
Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman urged citizens to keep trust in the army, which, he said, would return peace to the country.
“We will also ensure that justice is served for every death and crime that occurred during the protests,” he said, calling on the public to exercise patience and cease any acts of violence and vandalism.
“We have invited representatives from all major political parties, and they have accepted our invitation and committed to collaborating with us,” the general added.
The military has a “very tough job ahead,” Irene Khan, a UN special rapporteur, said.
“We are all hoping that the transition would be peaceful and that there will be accountability for all the human rights violations that have taken place,” Khan told Al Jazeera.
Protests in the country started a month ago over a controversial government job quota scheme. The government responded by shutting down universities and using the police and military to crack down on protesters.
Hasina imposed a nationwide curfew and cut off access to phones and the internet. The protests continued, and the country’s top court ruled that the highly contested quotas should be scaled back from 30 percent to 5 percent, with 3 percent for relatives of veterans.
It came to no avail. The demonstration movement had morphed into an unprecedented and nationwide uprising demanding the resignation of Hasina and accountability for those killed.
Gaza receives 80 bodies of unidentified Palestinians from Israel: officials
"We received 80 bodies inside 15 bags, with more than four martyrs in each bag, each wrapped in a single shroud", Civil Defence Director Yamen Abu Suleiman says.
Civil Defence agency in Gaza has said it received the bodies of 80 unidentified Palestinians from Israel, which it buried in a mass grave.
"We received 80 bodies inside 15 bags, with more than four martyrs in each bag, each wrapped in a single shroud", Civil Defence Director Yamen Abu Suleiman said on Monday.
Abu Suleiman said Israeli authorities did not provide any information about the bodies, including their names or where they were found or taken from.
"We do not know if they are martyrs (killed in Gaza) or prisoners from (Israel's) jails", he added.
In a video released by the Health Ministry in Gaza, men in hazmat suits could be seen inspecting the corpses wrapped in blue plastic sheeting, before unloading them from the shipping container they had arrived in.
The footage then showed the bodies being laid in a line for burial in a mass grave dug in the sand.
The bodies were later buried at the Turkish cemetery, near Khan Younis, the main city in the southern part of Gaza, journalists said.
'Suffering of families'
Salwa Karaz, a displaced woman from Gaza City in the north, said that she had gone to the Turkish cemetery hoping to find her 32-year-old son Marwan, who went missing in January.
He left behind an eight-month-old son.
"When we learned that 80 bodies had been handed over, we came to search in hopes of finding him among them", the 59-year-old said.
"As of now, we have not learned anything," she lamented.
"We will try to identify him through his clothes. He was wearing brown pants, a navy blue shirt, a black jacket, and beige boots."
She last saw him leaving on his bicycle from their shelter in Deir al Balah, central Gaza.
In a statement released on Monday, Hamas said Israel's delivery of bodies without identities "exacerbates the suffering of the families of martyrs and the missing, who seek to know the fate of their abducted children or to bury their martyrs in a dignified manner".
30 killed as Israel hits Gaza schools amid failing cease-fire talks
At least 30 Palestinians were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit two schools in Gaza City on Sunday, Palestinian officials said.
In a separate incident, another Israeli airstrike hit a tent camp inside a hospital in central Gaza earlier the same day.
Gaza health officials said a total of at least 44 Palestinians were killed on Sunday, the day after a round of talks in Cairo ended without result.
Footage circulated on Palestinian media showed bodies scattered inside the yard of one of two blast-wrecked schools as residents rushed to carry casualties, including children, and loaded them into ambulance vehicles that took them to at least two nearby hospitals.
Gaza's Civil Emergency Service said dozens were wounded in addition to the fatalities in the schools of Hassan Salama and Al-Nasser, which housed Palestinian displaced families.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command embedded within the schools and that it took steps to reduce the risk to civilians there.
Israel claims Hamas regularly embeds in civilian institutions, using Gaza's population as human shields. Hamas denies this.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli strike inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound started a fire, and wounded at least 18 people as well as killed five, medical authorities said.
The Israeli military said it struck resistance members operating there and that secondary explosions were identified, indicating weapons were present in the area.
The hospital compound is in Deir al-Balah, an area crowded with thousands of people displaced by fighting in other parts of the enclave.
Elsewhere in Deir al-Balah, three Palestinians were killed when an Israeli missile struck a house. Separate Israeli strikes killed eight others inside their home in Jabalia camp in northern Gaza City and three inside a car.
Residents in areas southeast of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and to the north of Rafah, where there was heavy fighting last month, reported receiving evacuation orders from the Israeli military.
The Israeli army spokesman posted orders on X, asking residents of those districts to head toward the humanitarian zone, saying forces would soon act forcefully against militants waging attacks from those areas.
Pezeshkian, Shoigu affirm Iran-Russia strategic partnership
From Tehran, the Secretary of Russia's National Security Council says both nations are working to "create a multipolar world and ensure the security of the region."
Iran and Russia are strategic partners with expanding ties, pointed out Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, calling for the swift implementation of existing agreements.
In a meeting with Sergei Shoigu, Secretary of Russia's National Security Council, Pezeshkian highlighted Moscow's support during challenging times for Tehran and underscored the importance of prioritizing relations with such a key ally in Iran’s foreign policy.
"We believe that the era of one-upmanship of some powers, including the United States, in the world is over," he stressed, highlighting that "cooperation between Iran and Russia to promote a multipolar world will definitely lead to further promotion of world security and peace."
Pezeshkian also condemned the atrocities committed by the Israeli occupation entity in the Gaza Strip, asserting that "the criminal acts of this regime against the oppressed and defenseless people of Gaza," as well as the assassination of Hamas' Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran are clear violations of international laws and regulations.
On his part, Shoigu reiterated Russia's view of Iran as a key strategic ally in the region, affirming that both nations are working to "create a multipolar world and ensure the security of the region."
"The relations between the two countries are growing in all sectors and have good prospects," he confirmed.
Iran-Russia relations ‘strategic, deep, long-term’: Bagheri
In the same vein, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, described the friendly ties between Iran and Russia as "strategic, deep, and long-term," stressing that these relations would remain strong regardless of changes in government.
During his meeting with Shoigu in Tehran, Bagheri highlighted the long-standing friendly relations between the two countries.
Iran's Mehr News Agency reported that the discussions between the two sides were aimed at strengthening bilateral interaction, reviewing regional and international issues, and enhancing defense and military ties.
Bagheri praised Shoigu's successful tenure as Russia's Defense Ministry and reiterated the enduring strategic nature of Iran-Russia relations.
In turn, Shoigu expressed Russia's readiness for comprehensive cooperation with Iran on regional affairs.
The Russian diplomat also condemned Haniyeh's assassination, underlining that the perpetrators of this crime aim to escalate tensions in the region.
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