Bangladesh on Sunday issued new banknotes to replace designs featuring its founding president, the father of ousted PM Sheikh Hasina, who was overthrown last year.
The South Asian nation, home to some 170 million people, has been run by a caretaker government since Hasina fled — whose trial opened on Sunday on charges of trying to crush the uprising against her government in August 2024.
Until now, all notes featured the portrait of her father, the late Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh from its independence from Pakistan in 1971 until soldiers assassinated him and most of his family in a 1975 coup.
“Under the new series and design, the notes will not feature any human portraits, but will instead showcase natural landscapes and traditional landmarks,” Bangladesh Bank spokesman Arif Hossain Khan told AFP.
Among the designs in the Muslim-majority nation are images of Hindu and Buddhist temples, as well as historical palaces.
They also include artwork of the late painter Zainul Abedin, depicting the Bengal famine during British colonial rule.
Another will depict the national martyrs’ memorial for those who died in the independence war against Pakistan.
On Sunday, notes for three of the nine different denominations were released.
“The new notes will be issued from the central bank’s headquarters, and later from its other offices across the country,” he added.
“The other denominations of the notes with new designs will be released in phases”.
Existing notes and coins will remain in circulation alongside the new notes.
It is not the first time that the design has changed to reflect changing politics.
Initial notes issued in 1972 — after Bangladesh changed its name from East Pakistan — featured a map.
Later notes featured Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the Awami League, which Hasina also led during her 15 years in power.
When other parties were in charge — dominated by the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — historic and archaeological sites were featured.
The Awami League was banned last month pending the trial of Hasina and other party leaders. Hasina, 77, is in self-imposed exile in India and has defied an extradition order to attend her trial.
Bangladesh Opens Ex-PM’s Trial
Fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina orchestrated a “systemic attack” to try to crush the uprising against her government, Bangladeshi prosecutors said at the opening of her trial on Sunday.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched its crackdown, according to the United Nations.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to her old ally India as the student-led uprising ended her 15-year rule, and she has defied an extradition order to return to Dhaka.
The domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is prosecuting former senior figures connected to Hasina’s ousted government and her now-banned party, the Awami League.
“Upon scrutinising the evidence, we reached the conclusion that it was a coordinated, widespread and systematic attack,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, ICT chief prosecutor, told the court in his opening speech.
“The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising.”
Islam lodged charges against Hasina and two other officials of “abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy, and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising”.
Hasina, who remains in self-imposed exile in India, has rejected the charges as politically motivated.
As well as Hasina, the case includes ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun — who is in custody, but who did not appear in court on Sunday — and former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who, like Hasina, is on the run.
The prosecution of senior figures from Hasina’s government is a key demand of several of the political parties now jostling for power. The interim government has vowed to hold elections before June 2026.
The hearing is being broadcast live on state-owned Bangladesh Television.
Prosecutor Islam vowed the trial would be impartial.
“This is not an act of vendetta, but a commitment to the principle that, in a democratic country, there is no room for crimes against humanity,” he said.
Investigators have collected video footage, audio clips, Hasina’s phone conversations, records of helicopter and drone movements, as well as statements from victims of the crackdown as part of their probe.
The ICT court opened its first trial connected to the previous government on May 25.
In that case, eight police officials face charges of crimes against humanity over the killing of six protesters on August 5, the day Hasina fled the country.
Four of the officers are in custody and four are being tried in absentia.
The ICT was set up by Hasina in 2009 to investigate crimes committed by the Pakistani army during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971.
It sentenced numerous prominent political opponents to death and became widely seen as a means for Hasina to eliminate rivals.
Earlier on Sunday, the Supreme Court restored the registration of the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, allowing it to take part in elections.
Hasina banned Jamaat-e-Islami during her tenure and cracked down on its leaders.
In May, Bangladesh’s interim government banned the Awami League, pending the outcome of her trial, and of other party leaders.
Via: Agence France-Presse
