The United States congressman Bob Good said that he sent a letter to the US ambassador to the United Nations with 13 of his colleagues expressing concern over violence by the government of Bangladesh against peaceful demonstrators. The Republican congressman shared the matter through a Twitter post on Thursday evening (US local time). 'The people of Bangladesh deserve free and fair elections. I sent a letter to the U.S. Ambassador to the UN with 13 of my colleagues, expressing concern over violence by the Bangladeshi government against peaceful demonstrators,' Bob Good tweeted.

The US congressmen's letter came to light ahead of Bangladesh's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party along with other opposition political parties being set to hold a rally in Dhaka city on Friday. The opposition political parties will hold demonstrations in the capital demanding the resignation of prime minister Sheikh Hasina amid fear of violence as the ruling Awami League is also set to hold a counter rally in the city at the same time.

Police continued the arrests of leaders and activists of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party ahead of the party's grand rally in the capital's Naya Paltan on Friday. DMP commissioner Khandker Golam Faruq said in a press conference that they were looking for troublemakers. BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, at a press briefing at the party's Naya Paltan central office, said that more than 500 opposition leaders and activists had been arrested.

Rizvi demanded the unconditional release of all those arrested. He alleged that those arrests were made 'selectively.' The DMP confirmed 366 opposition activists had been arrested between Wednesday and Thursday on political grounds. KM Yeahia Same, the joint convener of Mirpur unit Swechchasebak Dal, said about 7:30pm on Thursday that 57 of their leaders and activists were arrested by the Darussalam police station, 39 others by Kafrul police, and 32 by Pallabi police in the overnight raids.

Two convicts in the Rajshahi University teacher Prof S Taher Ahmed murder case were hanged at Rajshahi Central Jail. The executions of Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin and Jahangir Alam were conducted at 10.01pm on Thursday, July 27, according to jailer Nizam Uddin. Mohiuddin was a former colleague of Prof Taher at Department of Geology and Mining while his accomplice Jahangir was an RU employee.

Mohiuddin was the brother-in-law of late BNP minister Aminul Haque. He belonged to the pro BNP-Jamaat teachers' platform at the university. The executions were carried out more than a decade after Rajshahi's speedy trial tribunal handed down death sentences to four accused in 2008. A six-member Appellate Division bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, delivered the last verdict in the case on September 15 last year. Prof Taher went missing from his home on the campus on February 1, 2006, when he was aged 59. Two days later, police recovered his body from the septic tank of his home.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought British cooperation for the Bangladesh railway sector to improve this sector further. She made the request while Executive Chairman of The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and Former British Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair called on the Prime Minister at her official residence Ganabhaban. PM's press secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed the reporters after the meeting.

He said that Tony Blair highly appreciated Bangladesh's socioeconomic and infrastructural development under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. "Bangladesh's development will gain further momentum in the coming days," he said. Hasina said that the aim of her government is to develop the country. In this connection, she mentioned that the government is focusing on the ICT sector with a priority basis. Ambassador at large M Ziauddin and Principal Secretary Md Tofazzel Hossain Miah were present during the meeting.