Bangladesh leader urges calm as cabinet neutrality questioned

Bangladesh's interim leader has sought to calm rival political parties questioning the impartiality of his cabinet as they jostle for power ahead of the first elections since a 2024 uprising.The polls, expected in February 2026, will be the first in the country of 170mn people since a student-led revolt ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, ending her 15-year hardline rule.Muhammad Yunus, the 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner serving as the country's "chief adviser", had "taken measures to hold free, impartial, and fair elections", his press team said yesterday.But Nahid Islam, convener of the National Citizen Party (NCP) - made up of many students who spearheaded the uprising - alleged some advisers were collaborating with parties to secure their "safe exit" in the future administration."Major political parties are appointing party loyalists to various administrative posts ahead of the elections," Islam told reporters. "Some advisers within the government are helping them."He did not give further details, but those and similar accusations from other parties have sent political tensions soaring.Yunus met with leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the nation's largest Islamist party, in the latest of a series of talks aimed at easing tensions.Senior Jamaat leader Abdullah Muhammad Taher said they had told Yunus that some of his advisors had been "misleading" him, by "working on behalf of a certain political party", without giving further details."You should be aware of them," Taher said in a message to Yunus, speaking to reporters.That followed meetings on October 21 with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as among the election front-runners.Senior BNP official Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, speaking to reporters after that meeting, said he had "requested the government remove any adviser found siding with political parties".Almagir did not give further details, although Dhaka's Prothom Alo newspaper reported the BNP had submitted two names.Hasina, 78, fled last year to New Delhi, where she has defied court orders to return to attend her ongoing crimes against humanity trial for ordering the deadly crackdown.Her Awami League has been outlawed and is barred from taking part in elections.