Hasina hopes BD-India can settle unresolved issues

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on May 25 called for international pressure, including from India, on Myanmar to take back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape an army clampdown. "We need your cooperation to put pressure on Myanmar so that the Rohingya refugees can return home," Hasina said after jointly inaugurating the Bangladesh Bhavan with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at the Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan, West Bengal. Bangladesh's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam told reporters on the issue of Teesta water-sharing that "We have full faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi ... A track II dialogue [backchannel diplomacy] is already on regarding this issue."

96 killed in anti-narcotics crackdown so far

Including 12 who were killed on May 28, at least 96 people have been killed in "gunfights" in the last 14 days amid the countrywide anti-narcotics drive. Police officers claimed to have seized hauls of Phensedyl bottles, hemp, yaba pills, firearms, bullets, and a few crude bombs from the crime scenes. Rab started the crackdown on May 4 while police launched its drive from the first day of Ramadan. Noted human rights activists and organisations have been highly critical of the drives, saying that drug dealers and users are being killed by law enforcers and the crackdown lacks transparency.

2 Bangladeshi peacekeepers die in CAR road crash

At least two Bangladeshis, who are part of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), were killed and two others were injured in a road crash on May 28. Both were members of the Bangladesh Battalion-4 (Banabat-4), engaged in UN peacekeeping missions. he accident took place as a heavy timber carrying conveyor lost control on the way at Yaloke area, leaving the two dead and two injured on the spot. The injured were taken to capital city Bangui for treatment. Other peacekeepers stationed in CAR are safe. Bangladesh Battalion has been engaged in the UN peacekeeping programme since October 2014.

Thai Princess Sirindhorn in city

Thailand's Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn arrived in Dhaka on May 28 on a four-day visit, at the invitation of Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali. The princess is leading an 11-member high-profile Thai government delegation to visit philanthropic projects she set up in Bangladesh in 2011 under her father, late King Bhumibols's Royal Chai Pattana Foundation. On her first day, the Thai Princess visited Liberation War Museum in the capital. She also attended dinner hosted by the Thai Ambassador in Dhaka. During her four-day visit to Bangladesh, the princess is scheduled to call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, and exchange views with Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Culturual Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor, and other dignitaries.