Indian anti-terrorism investigators on Monday presented in court a suspect linked to last week’s deadly car-bomb in New Delhi, one of two men accused of involvement in the suicide attack.Officials have not disclosed any details on the motives or organisational backing of the alleged attackers, both of whom they say came from Indian-administered Kashmir.Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the Himalayan territory in full. Tensions remain high between New Delhi and Islamabad.The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said suspect Amir Rashid Ali is accused of having “conspired with the alleged suicide bomber, Umar Un Nabi, to unleash the terror attack” last Monday.The NIA put the death toll at 10, though hospital officials told AFP that at least 12 people had been killed. It remains unclear whether Nabi is included in the tally.An AFP photographer saw Ali being taken under heavy guard from a police truck to to a New Delhi court to face charges.Indian media reported that the court had ordered he be held in custody for 10 days by the NIA.The November 10 blast erupted near a busy metro station close to the Red Fort in Old Delhi, where the prime minister delivers the annual Independence Day address.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the attack a “conspiracy” and vowed to bring the “perpetrators, their collaborators and their sponsors” to justice.Nabi was a medical professor at a university in Haryana state, just outside the capital, while Ali had allegedly travelled to Delhi to “facilitate the purchase of the car which was eventually used as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (IED)”, according to the NIA.India has provided no further information on the alleged motives or network behind the two suspects.The bombing was the worst attack since April 22, when 26 mainly Hindu civilians were killed at the tourist site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir.New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing that attack, claims Islamabad denied.In May, India launched strikes inside Pakistan, triggering four days of intense cross-border conflict that killed at least 70 people.After a ceasefire, Modi vowed that “any attack on Indian soil will be considered as an act of war”.Separately on Monday, army chief General Upendra Dwivedi issued a pointed warning to Pakistan, comparing the brief May conflict to a “trailer” rather than a full-length film.”I’d like to say that the movie hasn’t even started — only a trailer was shown, and, after the trailer, it was over within 88 hours,” Dwivedi said in a speech at a defence conference in New Delhi.”So, we’re fully prepared for the future, and if Pakistan gives us such an opportunity, we’d like to provide them with a thorough education — on how a responsible nation should behave with its neighbours.”

A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to be hanged for crimes against humanity, with cheers breaking out in the packed court as the judge read out the verdict.Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her.The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national television, comes less than three months ahead of the first polls since her overthrow in August 2024.”All the… elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled,” judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the packed court in Dhaka.The former leader had been found guilty on three counts: incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities, the judge said.”We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence — that is, sentence of death.”On the streets of Dhaka, crowds waved the national flag and celebrated.Former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was also sentenced to death in absentia, after being found guilty on four counts of crimes against humanity.Ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who was in court and had pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.- ‘Pays the dues’ -Hasina, who was assigned a state-appointed lawyer for the trial, called the verdict “biased and politically motivated”, in a statement issued from hiding in India.”Its guilty verdict against me was a foregone conclusion,” Hasina said.Her defence lawyer Md Amir Hossain, who she did not recognise, said Hasina could only appeal if she “surrenders… or is arrested”.Shamsi Ara Zaman, whose photojournalist son Tahir Zaman Priyo was killed during last year’s protests, said she was “satisfied” with the death sentences but “dismayed” that the ex-police chief was handed only five years in jail.Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since the end of Hasina’s autocratic rule, and violence has marred campaigning for elections expected in February 2026.The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to cling to power, deaths that were central to her trial.Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman praised the trial.”The verdict pays the dues to the martyrs, to the country, to all citizens, to democracy, the constitution, the rule of law, and to our obligation towards the next generation,” he told reporters.The trial heard months of testimony detailing how Hasina had ordered mass killings.- Deepening crisis -Security forces surrounded the court for the verdict, with armoured vehicles manning checkpoints and thousands of police officers posted across the capital.Crude bombs have been set off across Dhaka this month, mainly petrol bombs hurled at everything from buildings linked to interim leader Muhammad Yunus’s government to buses and Christian sites.Bangladesh’s foreign ministry summoned India’s envoy to Dhaka this month, demanding that New Delhi block the “notorious fugitive” Hasina from talking to journalists and “granting her a platform to spew hatred”.The International Crisis Group said the “political repercussions of this verdict are significant”.”The process has not been without critics,” ICG analyst Thomas Kean said.”In absentia trials are often a source of contention, and in this case the speed with which the hearings were conducted and the apparent lack of resources for the defence also raise questions of fairness… But they should not be used to downplay or deflect from Sheikh Hasina’s actions”.Kean added: “The prospect of Sheikh Hasina mounting a political comeback in Bangladesh now appears very slim”.But Hasina remains defiant.She said in October she “mourned all the lives lost during the terrible days” when students were gunned down in the streets. Her comments enraged many who said she had made a ruthless bid to maintain power at all costs.Hasina also warned that the ban on her former ruling party the Awami League by the interim government was deepening the political crisis in the country of 170 million people before the elections.

Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina, whose autocratic rule was ended by a mass uprising she tried to crush, had her downfall sealed on Monday when she was sentenced to be hanged for crimes against humanity.Once praised for overseeing Bangladesh’s rapid economic rise, she fled to neighbouring India by helicopter in August 2024 as angry crowds stormed her palace and has remained in hiding ever since.Critics accused her of jailing political rivals, enacting harsh anti-press laws, and overseeing widespread human rights abuses, including the killing of opposition activists.The 78-year-old fugitive defied court orders to return to attend her trial on whether she bore command responsibility for the bloody crackdown on the student-led uprising.Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations.- Corruption charges  -The court in Dhaka sentenced her to death after finding her guilty on Monday on three counts of crimes against humanity that included incitement and ordering to kill and inaction to prevent atrocities.Chief prosecutor Tajul Islam said Hasina was “the nucleus around whom all the crimes (were) committed” during the uprising.Her trial, which began on June 1, heard months of testimony detailing how Hasina ordered mass killings.Hasina, who was assigned a state-appointed lawyer, called the trial a “jurisprudential joke”.Witnesses included a man whose face was ripped apart by a gunshot.The prosecution also played audio tapes — matched by police with verified recordings of Hasina — that suggested she directly ordered security forces to “use lethal weapons” against protesters.Already convicted in July in a contempt of court case and sentenced in absentia to six months in prison, Hasina still faces multiple corruption cases.Those cases involve several relatives, including her daughter Saima Wazed — who has served as a senior UN official — and her niece Tulip Siddiq, a British lawmaker. All deny the accusations.- Rivalry with Zia -The daughter of a revolutionary who led Bangladesh to independence in 1971, Hasina presided over breakneck economic growth in a country once written off by US statesman Henry Kissinger as a “basket case”.Hasina was 27 and abroad when her father, prime minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was killed in a 1975 coup.She returned after six years in exile and briefly allied with Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to help oust military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1990.The alliance quickly soured and their rivalry came to define Bangladeshi politics.Hasina first became prime minister in 1996 but lost to Zia in 2001. Both were imprisoned on corruption charges after a 2007 coup.Hasina presided over a period of rapid economic expansion, largely driven by Bangladesh’s garment export industry, after returning to power in 2008.Once one of the world’s poorest countries, Bangladesh grew more than six percent annually on average since 2009 and surpassed India in per capita income by 2021.Hasina remained in office until she was overthrown.”The prospect of Sheikh Hasina mounting a political comeback in Bangladesh now appears very slim,” International Crisis Group analyst Thomas Kean said after the verdict.Her rival Zia is now 80 and will contest elections slated for February 2026 despite suffering from years of house arrest when Hasina was in power.Her BNP is tipped as the frontrunner to win.