Death Sentence

Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death on Monday for violently suppressing student protests in 2024.

The U.N. estimates that Bangladesh’s security forces killed up to 1,400 people and injured thousands during a three-week-long clash last summer, allegedly under then-Prime Minister Hasina’s orders. Protests were sparked by government-job hiring practices that favored relatives of those who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War (read more background here)… but even after policies changed, job-market challenges and inflation kept younger generations demonstrating.

Hasina, who led Bangladesh from 1996-2001 and 2009-2024, called the judgment “biased and politically motivated.” She’s currently living in exile in India, which seems unlikely to agree to Bangladesh’s extradition request.

Bangladesh’s interim government called the verdict “historic” and upped domestic security, bracing for protests by Hasina’s supporters.

ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Christians live as strangers and exiles in our home countries, whether that temporary home is peaceful, disorderly, or somewhere in between. Seek the good of the city you’re passing through while eagerly anticipating your move to your permanent home.

“This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce… Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.’”
Jeremiah 29:4-5, 7 (CSB) (read full passage)