Bangladesh’s powerful army chief has said the first elections since the country’s former leader was ousted in a mass uprising should be held by December, local media reported and military sources confirmed on Thursday.General Waker-Uz-Zaman was reported to have told officers on Wednesday that elections should be held by December this year — if not earlier, according to Bangladeshi newspapers.The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since the student-led revolt that ousted then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August, with parties protesting on the streets making rafts of demands.”Bangladesh is passing through a chaotic phase,” Waker-Uz-Zaman said, according to the newspapers.”The situation is worsening by the day. The structure of the civil administration and law enforcement agencies has collapsed and failed to reconstitute.”No date has been set for elections but interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest.But the key Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the front-runners in the elections, have repeatedly demanded an election date.The BNP on Wednesday held protests in the capital Dhaka, significant in that they for the first time demonstrated against the caretaker government.In response to a question from an officer, the army chief reportedly said: “Elections should be held by December, if not earlier.”He also is reported to have told officers to “carry out your duties with honesty and impartiality during the election”.It was Waker-Uz-Zaman who announced in August last year that Hasina had been overthrown, with the military taking brief control.Days later, Waker-Uz-Zaman handed over power to Yunus, 84, who has said he will lead the caretaker government until the next elections.Lieutenant Colonel Sami-Ud-Dowla Chowdhury, the military spokesperson, confirmed that Waker-Uz-Zaman had addressed officers on Wednesday but said the “meeting was confidential”.But three sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told AFP that the army chief emphasised the urgency of holding elections and said they should be held by December.Known for his calm demeanour, Waker-Uz-Zaman appeared frustrated and dissatisfied during the session, they said.

Sometimes the only outsiders that Indian troops posted along the contested frontier in Kashmir see are Pakistani soldiers eyeballing them across the remote valley high in the rugged Himalayan mountains.Contact between them extends to what Indian soldiers posted to the fortified concrete bunkers call “hooting” — an occasional taunting shout or whistle echoing across the divide, which can be as little as 30 metres (100 feet) at its narrowest point.That’s close enough to hurl a hand grenade or, perhaps more hopefully for the arch-rivals who share a sporting passion, a well-thrown cricket ball.”There is obviously no interaction with the enemy,” an Indian officer deployed along the de facto border, dubbed the Line of Control (LoC), told AFP in a visit to positions organised by the army.Troops on each side are settling back down to an uneasy standoff a month after the deadly April 22 attack on tourists in Kashmir sent relations spiralling towards a war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the Islamist militants it said were behind the killing of 26 men in the deadliest attack on civilians in Muslim-majority Kashmir in decades. Pakistan denies the charge.Troops along the LoC began exchanging nightly gunfire two days after the attack, rattling off shots into the dark without causing casualties.India then launched strikes deep into Pakistan’s territory on May 7, triggering four days of intense drone, missile, aerial combat and artillery exchanges.- ‘See and hear’ -More than 70 people were killed on both sides, the worst conflict since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.It is still holding and the LoC is again quiet.Diplomatically, New Delhi and Islamabad seem back to an uneasy peace, trading long-standing accusations that the other supports militant groups operating in their territory.Islamabad blamed India on Wednesday for a bomb attack on a school bus that killed six people, which New Delhi called a “baseless” allegation and said it was “second nature for Pakistan to blame India for all its internal issues”. India expelled a Pakistani diplomat on Wednesday, the second since the ceasefire deal.Soldiers from either side eye each other warily across the razor’s edge of the LoC that slices through the territory, home to some 17 million people and which each side claims in full.The Indian officer pointed to a green ridge where he said Indian and Pakistani posts were about 30-40 metres apart. “There are many such places across the frontline,” he said. “Our soldiers can see and hear the other side at such posts,” said the officer, who could not be identified because he did not have official clearance to speak to the media. “There is even hooting at times, but no conversations.”When the hooting does happen, it is sometimes to taunt the other during rare cricket matches between the rival nations.For the Indian forces, the Pakistani soldiers can be the only other humans they see outside their unit for weeks when snow cuts them off in the winter months. – ‘Intense’ -The border camp had multiple well-insulated bunkers, artillery pieces covered in camouflage tarpaulins and there were several radar and air defence systems on the hills.The 770-kilometre (478-mile) LoC — the route of a ceasefire line dating back to 1949 — snakes down from icy high-altitude outposts to greener foothills in the south.A senior officer in charge of multiple artillery pieces said that, for many of the men, the four days of heavy barrages had been their “first experience” of such conflict.”It was really intense,” he said, adding that “at least 100 to 150 artillery shells fell around here”.Outposts dot the picturesque but hard-to-reach terrain of snow-clad peaks, dense forests, icy streams and ridges.A small, seemingly tranquil village in Pakistani-run Kashmir surrounded by green hills was visible across the valley.”We’ve been preparing for years — and were ready,” the artillery officer said, adding that none of his men were wounded or killed and that they “gave a befitting reply to the enemy”.Indian army officers at another frontier post pointed to a damaged Pakistani post they’d targeted.Another officer showed the long rolls of concertina razor wire along their side of the frontier, a formidable barrier to protect their mountain-top outposts.”Who holds the higher position in the Himalayas is critical in any conflict,” he said.