Unease grips Bangladesh amid protests in civil administration over interim govt policies

Bangladesh faces unrest over government policies, business leaders warn of economic crisis, military tensions rise, and election timeline debated.

A sense of unease intensified in Bangladesh overnight amid protests in the civil administration and the business sector over policies of the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus.

The mass circulation Prothom Alo newspaper carried a report headlined “protests in the secretariat, NBR turned dysfunctional, Nagar Bhan under lock and key” referring to an ongoing demonstration of government employees against a proposed law involving government employees service, protests of officials of national revenue board and the employees of Dhaka South City Corporation.

Editorial | ​Trade diplomacy: on India-Bangladesh trade-related tensions

A prominent business community leader, Showkat Aziz Russell, meanwhile, said businessmen in the country were being killed just like the intellectuals in the 1971 Liberation War. He warned of famine-like situation as more people become jobless.

“We don’t know how we will pay bonuses and salaries to workers ahead of Eid-ul-Adha,” said Mr. Russell, who is the president of Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association (BTMA), at a joint press conference of business chambers.

He told the press conference, co-hosted by the apex Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI), that in the last eight months, the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority had failed to bring in a single investor.

“You are inviting foreigners to invest in the country...(but) foreigners know that investment in Bangladesh is not viable. They know Vietnam is more profitable than Bangladesh,” Russell said.