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Gen-Z battles to gain political ground after ousting ex-PM Hasina in Bangladesh

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Gen-Z battles to gain political ground after ousting ex-PM Hasina in Bangladesh


Activists of the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement gather at the University of Dhakas Teacher Student Center (TSC) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 13, 2024. — Reuters
Activists of the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement gather at the University of Dhaka’s Teacher Student Center (TSC) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 13, 2024. — Reuters
  • Opinion polls show NCP in third place with only 6% support.
  • Party holding talks with BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, say leaders.
  • Nahid Islam says party is weak due to lack of time to build it.

DHAKA: Thousands in Bangladesh flocked to hear the plans of the students who toppled long-time leader Sheikh Hasina when they launched a new political party this year, but now it finds itself struggling to translate the street power into votes.

Fighting to deliver on its promise to free the nation from decades of nepotism and two-party dominance, the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) faces entrenched rivals with deep networks and resources as polls approach in February.

“Our organisation is weak because we haven’t had enough time to build it,” said its chief Nahid Islam, prominent in last year’s deadly anti-government protests who served briefly in the caretaker administration under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

“We are aware of this, but we are still taking on the challenge,” added the 27-year-old, speaking from the party office in a high-rise in Dhaka, the capital, where one wall was covered in graffiti depicting crowds in revolt.

BNP in lead

Opinion polls show the NCP, which aims to contest all 300 seats, in third place, with support of just 6%, far behind the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, which leads with 30%.

Even the Jamaat-e-Islami will do better than the NCP, coming in second with 26%, a December poll by a US-based non-profit, the International Republican Institute, showed.

“When they first launched, I saw hope in them, like everyone,” said Prapti Taposhi, 25, who helped lead the revolt and looked to the newcomers to break decades of rule by two dominant parties, only to say she was eventually disappointed.

Nahid Islam, convener of the Jatiya Nagorik Party (National Citizen Party), newly formed by Bangladeshi students, who were at the forefront of last years protests that ousted then-Prime-Minister Sheikh Hasina, poses for a photo, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 5, 2025. — Reuters
Nahid Islam, convener of the Jatiya Nagorik Party (National Citizen Party), newly formed by Bangladeshi students, who were at the forefront of last year’s protests that ousted then-Prime-Minister Sheikh Hasina, poses for a photo, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 5, 2025. — Reuters

“They say they are centrist, but their actions don’t match that,” added Taposhi, a feminist activist.

“They hesitate to take positions on important issues, whether it’s minority rights or women’s rights, and when they do, it comes too late.”

Another sign of growing disenchantment was the party’s failure to win a single seat in September’s student body election at Dhaka University, the epicentre of the uprising that forced Hasina to flee to New Delhi.

Hasina’s Awami League, which remains barred from contesting the election, has warned of unrest if the ban is not lifted, a threat that could imperil Bangladesh’s textile industry, the world’s second biggest garment exporter.

Political alliance

Hampered by a skeletal structure, scarce funds, and a stance on key issues such as rights for women and minorities widely seen as unclear, the NCP is holding talks with other parties, including the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, leaders say.

“If we stand independently, there is a chance we may not win even one seat,” a senior NCP leader told Reuters on condition of anonymity, acknowledging the risks.

On the other hand, say analysts, an alliance risks diluting the party’s “revolutionary” image.

A vendor sells newspapers with headlines about the news of the ousted PM Sheikh Hasinas death sentence on charges of crimes against humanity for ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 18, 2025. — Reuters
A vendor sells newspapers with headlines about the news of the ousted PM Sheikh Hasina’s death sentence on charges of crimes against humanity for ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 18, 2025. — Reuters

“If they ally, the public will no longer see them as a distinct force outside the Awami League, BNP and Jamaat,” said Dhaka-based writer and political analyst Altaf Parvez.

While the uprising briefly united students across party lines to oust Hasina, most returned to their respective groups afterwards, leaving just a fraction to form the NCP, said political analysts and one NCP leader.

Now the party faces rivals with long-entrenched networks and well-oiled machinery stretching deep into villages.

Fundraising issue

Money is another hurdle, Islam said, as members rely on salaries from full-time jobs, small donations and crowdfunding to keep campaigns afloat.

Some, like 28-year-old Hasnat Abdullah, have tried to drum up support by going door-to-door in villages.

“In my constituency, I tell people I am penniless,” he said, referring to an eastern region where he plans to contest. “I told them a leader’s main job is not to give voters money, but to ensure government funds are properly allocated and used.”

Graft accusations against some NCP leaders, which the party denies, saying it has a zero-tolerance policy on corruption, have further dented its image, however.

Striving for egalitarian culture

Yet some young people are still inclined to support the party, seeing it as striving for a more egalitarian culture in a political landscape shaped by money, muscle and dynastic power.

“They are young, they led the revolution, and I’m hopeful they can deliver change — as long as they don’t turn authoritarian themselves,” said one such backer, university student Manzila Rahman.

The NCP launched an unusual search for candidates in November, interviewing more than 1,000 applicants among ordinary citizens nationwide over two days.

Young party leaders moved from booth to booth interviewing hopefuls, including a rickshaw puller who took a day off work for the tryout, and a 23-year-old student partially blinded by police pellets during the protests.

People wave flags during celebrations marking the one-year anniversary of student-led protests that led to the ousting of Bangladeshi then-PM Sheikh Hasina, at Manik Mia Avenue, outside the parliament building, in Dhaka, Bangladesh on August 5, 2025. — Reuters
People wave flags during celebrations marking the one-year anniversary of student-led protests that led to the ousting of Bangladeshi then-PM Sheikh Hasina, at Manik Mia Avenue, outside the parliament building, in Dhaka, Bangladesh on August 5, 2025. — Reuters

“Some may think a rickshaw puller has nothing to offer in parliament,” said Mohammad Sujan Khan, 32. “Give me a chance and see what I do to change the country”.

The chance of such a future attracted Tasnim Jara, a doctor who left a successful career in Cambridge to join the NCP, seeking to help build it from the ground up.

“We want to open up politics, not keep it confined to powerful families, and give power back to ordinary people,” she said.

BNP and Jamaat leaders also see value in engaging with students.

“It’s the young people who are going to dominate politics in the future, so it will be good if we can accommodate them in parliament,” said BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

NCP leaders say they are thinking beyond the upcoming vote, aiming for institutional and structural reform in the long term.

“Win or lose, just by taking part in the election, we are offering something new,” said NCP’s Abdullah.





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Russian general hails Iran’s ‘shining example’ of defense against US-Israeli aggression

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Russian general hails Iran’s ‘shining example’ of defense against US-Israeli aggression



The first deputy head of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation of the Russian Defense Ministry says Iran demonstrated a “shining example” of defense during the recent illegal US-Israeli war of aggression.

“Iranian Armed Forces showed to the world a shining example of their firm resolve to defend their country’s interests,” Major-General Yevgeny Ilyin said during a ceremony in Moscow on Thursday, marking Iran’s National Army Day.

Iranian forces, he added, stand ready to deliver a proper and proportionate response to emerging challenges and threats.

The Russian military official said the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, with its steadfastness and courage, has protected the country’s defense and security and turned into a reliable guarantor for the nation’s independence and stability.

The unprovoked US-Israeli aggression on Iran began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders.

Iranian armed forces unleashed 100 waves of successful retaliatory strikes against sensitive and strategic American and Israeli targets throughout the region.

On April 8, forty days into the war, a Pakistan-brokered two-week ceasefire went into effect but the first round of Tehran-Washington negotiations failed to reach an agreement.

Referring to the strategic partnership pact signed between Iran and Russia, Ilyin said that both states have maintained their cooperation in many fields.

Iran-Russia defense relations are multifaceted, encompassing areas from the deep sea to space, he added.

The military official also reiterated Russia’s resolve to implement previous agreements with Iran and continue working on plans for bilateral military cooperation.

During the ceremony, Iran’s military attaché to Russia Sadeq Rezaei Moqaddam said Iranian Armed Forces have always been committed to moral principles and differentiated between military and civilian targets.

On the contrary, he said, the US and the Israeli regime perpetrated horrible war crimes by killing 170 students and teachers at an elementary school in the city of Minab, and targeting the Iranian Dena destroyer which was returning home from a naval drill in India.

The attacks on civilian infrastructure and educational centers represent the enemies’ strategic failure to deal a blow to the will of the Iranian nation, Rezaei Moqaddam asserted.

The perfect coordination of the Army units and other forces caused the aggressors to step back and thwarted their calculations, he said.

He further stressed that enhanced technical and military cooperation between the Iranian and Russian armed forces not only guarantees the national security of both nations, but is also the main pillar to safeguarding stability in Eurasia and countering unilateralism and organized international crimes.



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Netanyahu says he was successfully treated for prostate cancer

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Netanyahu says he was successfully treated for prostate cancer


Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony commemorating Israel’s Yom HaZikaron at the Military Cemetery on Mount Herzl in occupied Jerusalem, April 21, 2026. — Reuters
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony commemorating Israel’s Yom HaZikaron at the Military Cemetery on Mount Herzl in occupied Jerusalem, April 21, 2026. — Reuters
  • Netanyahu does not disclose when treatment occurred.
  • Delayed release of medical report by two months: Israeli PM.
  • Move aimed at preventing Iran from spreading “propaganda”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said that he had received successful treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, without specifying when the treatment took place.

In a statement on social media, as his annual medical report was released, Netanyahu, 76, said an early stage malignant tumor had been discovered during a routine checkup. He said “targeted treatment” had removed “the problem” and left no trace of it.

According to the medical report, which otherwise said the prime minister was in good health, Netanyahu was treated with radiation therapy for early-stage prostate cancer.

Neither the medical report nor Netanyahu said when the treatment occurred.

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister said that he had delayed the release of the medical report by two months to prevent Iran from spreading “false propaganda against Israel”.

In March, during the fighting with Iran, rumors that circulated on social media and aired on Iranian state media claimed that Netanyahu had died.

The Israeli leader recorded a video of himself visiting a Jerusalem cafe in March to refute the claims.

Netanyahu underwent surgery on his prostate in 2024 after he was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection resulting from a benign prostate enlargement. In 2023, he was fitted with a pacemaker. Elections are due to be held in Israel by October.





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Strategic Assertion or Legal Breach? Deconstructing India’s Indus Waters Doctrine

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Strategic Assertion or Legal Breach? Deconstructing India’s Indus Waters Doctrine



India’s unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty under the pretext of security concerns constitutes a flagrant violation of international law , devoid of any legal basis within the Treaty framework. By invoking unsubstantiated claims surrounding the Pahalgam incident , India advances a dangerous doctrine that legitimizes treaty erosion and the coercive weaponisation of shared resources.

The Indus Waters Treaty is a binding bilateral instrument that contains no provision permitting unilateral suspension , reinterpretation, or conditional compliance, thereby rendering India’s decision to hold it in abeyance legally untenable and inconsistent with the principle of pacta sunt servanda. The attempt to justify this breach through allegations linked to the Pahalgam incident remains entirely unsubstantiated in international fora, exposing the claim as a politically motivated pretext rather than a lawful justification. By conflating disputed security narratives with treaty obligations, India not only undermines the integrity of a long-standing water-sharing regime but also sets a pernicious precedent that threatens the stability of transboundary agreements and the broader rules-based international order.

India’s unilateral move to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance is not a policy shift, it is a shameless act of legal defiance , openly violating the most basic rule of international law; pacta sunt servanda.

The weaponization of a water-sharing treaty exposes the dangerous ideological imprint of the RSS mindset , where majoritarian extremism overrides legal commitments India’s attempt to justify its conduct through the Pahalgam incident collapses under scrutiny even after a year; no evidence, no accountability, no credibility, only a politically convenient narrative weaponized to rationalize treaty violations.

Dragging terrorism allegations into a binding water treaty is not strategy, it is blatant and reckless escalation , dismantling decades of carefully insulated cooperation and replacing it with instability and mistrust.

By sidestepping proceedings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, India has revealed a pattern of selective legality , embracing international law when convenient and abandoning it when constrained. Moreover, India yet remains silent to the UN Special Rapporteurs queries even after 130 days.

The weaponisation of water by an upper riparian state is nothing short of hydro-political terrorism , targeting the economic and agricultural lifeline of millions and crossing the line from governance into coercion.

This conduct represents a shameful erosion of treaty sanctity , sending a chilling message to the world that binding agreements can be hollowed out by power politics and ideological rigidity.

Pakistan’s position remains unequivocal; treaties are not conditional favors but binding obligations, and no state has the authority to unilaterally rewrite or suspend them under the guise of security narratives.

The growing international concern surrounding India’s actions underscores a simple reality: Unilateralism is isolating, destabilizing, and fundamentally incompatible with a rules-based order.

At its core, this doctrine of “blood and water cannot flow together” is not a principle of justice, it is a dangerous precedent, legitimizing collective punishment and transforming a historic instrument of peace into a tool of strategic pressure.



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