Hasina’s shadow over her niece’s profession, a Musk tirade and trad wives

Sheikh Hasina’s shadow over her niece’s political profession

For Sheikh Hasina’s prolonged household in Britain, the brand new 12 months has bought off to a rocky begin at the same time as she herself continues to face an unsure future amid mounting strain on New Delhi to extradite her to Dhaka.

Her favorite niece Tulip Siddiq, who was a minister within the Labour authorities, has been pressured to resign over claims that she has benefited from her hyperlinks to a few of her aunt’s allegedly dodgy associates. Sure, the identical niece Hasina had deliberate to stick with in London after fleeing Bangladesh final August.

An official investigation discovered that her household’s hyperlinks with the ousted Bangladeshi regime uncovered the federal government to “reputational dangers”.

Extra particularly, the row centres on Siddiq’s use of a number of upmarket London properties purchased by Hasina’s alleged proxies with cash laundered out of Bangladesh throughout her regime.

Siddiq and her household dwell in a £2.1-million dwelling owned by Abdul Karim Nazim, an official of the London arm of the Awami League. She additionally rents out a property purchased by Abdul Motalif, a property developer with hyperlinks to her aunt’s regime. It was price £195,000 in 2001 and given to her in 2004, in response to media experiences.

Her sister Azmina was reportedly given a £650,000 property by one in all their aunt’s advisers.

The controversy had been simmering for weeks however the tipping level got here after Muhammad Yunus, the pinnacle of Bangladesh’s interim administration, joined the refrain for Siddiq’s resignation, saying that purchasing houses with “stolen cash” was “plain theft”.

She has additionally been named in an investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Fee over claims that her household has embezzled £3.9 billion from infrastructure tasks.