Take these as samples --
"Bangladesh’s former prime minister fled the country ... bringing her 15-year regime, dominated by allegations of tyranny, violence and corruption, to a dramatic end.
While Hasina was accused of countless human rights abuses during her tenure, nothing would compare with what took place in the last weeks of July and early August (2024), as she desperately clung to power at the cost of more than 1,000 lives."
More than reporting ... this was passing a verdict. It was a popular London newspaper.
Mohammad Yunus is a hyped economist chiefly due to his right connections with the western powers and even the so-called 'deep state' than the knowledge about economics.
In August 2024, Hasina was ousted and even her official residence looted.
By the end of 2024 or even around May 2025 - the words spread about 'deep state's role'.
I then had spoken to Lt Gen Abhay Krishna (retd) -- on certain key aspects of the developments in Bangladesh, India's Manipur state and also in other parts of South Asia and South East Asia including Myanmar.
A keen observer of strategic things having served as Army Commander of three regions Eastern Command, South Western Command and Central Command, General Krishna told me
"Obviously the US is securing influence and possibly even a semi-permanent presence near the Bay of Bengal.
Muhammad Yunus, heading the interim civilian government in Bangladesh, has signalled openness to the corridor under Western pressure, but this has put him at odds with the Bangladesh Army, particularly General Waqar-uz-Zaman".
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| Lt Gen Abhay Krishna (Retd) |
He had also candidly shared --
"The Rakhine Corridor is quietly turning into one of the most consequential geopolitical flashpoints in our region right now. It’s being pitched as a humanitarian lifeline to northern Rakhine, which is now largely under the control of the Arakan Army.
But behind the smokescreen of aid, what’s really at stake is strategic access and a looming great power contest between the US and China, with Bangladesh caught squarely in the middle".
These strategic issues and US's trying to interfere into matters in South Asia did not bother western journalists.
Hence reporting about Bangladesh -- it was quite effortlessly written -
"The protest movement that instigated her unexpected downfall began small, as student protests on campuses.
But Hasina, notoriously intolerant of dissent, was rattled; in response, she authorised a campaign of terror and vengeance led by the most feared battalions of police and paramilitary.
Protesters were met with batons, tear gas, rubber bullets, metal pellets, beatings, mass arrests, judicial torture and eventually live ammunition, sometimes fired from helicopters."
And then a tone of justification of the violence and the ouster of an elected PM --
"Yet as the crackdown intensified and more bodies lay in the streets, the movement swelled into an all-out revolution."
Thus the Nov 17th verdict -- notoriously coinciding with her wedding anniversary -- are on expected line.
A retired IPS officer C P Giri notes:
"This was on the anticipated line and a forgone conclusion . There could not have been another verdict. The so called trial was formality only.
Another forgone conclusion is that the Indian government will not allow her extradition ".
Of course, the Americans have been pushing for the corridor under humanitarian pretexts.
The typical interesting part of Gen Krishna's analysis was:
"Gen Zaman sees through it. He’s drawing parallels with what happened to Pakistan in the 1980s when, under the guise of fighting the Soviets, the country became a staging ground for foreign interests.
The result was long-term instability, foreign interference and blowback that reshaped Pakistan’s politics forever."
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