In August 2024, the ruling Awami League (AL), which consolidated its control by harassing political opponents and co-opting state institutions during its 15 years in power, was overthrown in a student-led uprising. With the backing of the military and student protesters, an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus took office. Over the next year and a half, the interim government reopened political and civic space and began to implement reforms ahead of planned elections, but extralegal violence and political retribution remained problems.

• The AL, which had faced a de facto ban in 2024, was formally banned under an antiterrorism law in May, pending the final outcome of legal cases against its leadership. Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister and AL leader who had fled to India the previous year, was later convicted in absentia in separate trials on charges of contempt, corruption, and crimes against humanity linked to the use of lethal force against the 2024 student-led protest movement. Observers raised concerns about the judiciary’s adherence to international due process standards when handling cases against Hasina and other AL figures.
• A pattern of extralegal political violence continued during the year, including attacks involving AL supporters and their opponents. Sharif Osman Hadi, a prominent student leader, vocal critic of the Hasina government, and potential parliamentary candidate, was shot to death in December by an unidentified gunman. His killing sparked widespread and violent unrest across Bangladesh, with mobs attacking media offices, cultural sites, and properties associated with the AL and India.
• The interim government operated without a legislature throughout the year, but general elections were scheduled for February 2026. The Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami had its registration restored by the Supreme Court in June, formally ending a ban that had been in place since 2013 and clearing the way for the party’s participation in the elections. Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia—longtime head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the AL’s main rival—died in December after a prolonged illness, and leadership of the party passed to her son, Tarique Rahman, who returned from exile in London that month. Rahman was expected to be a key contender for prime minister.
• In May, the interim government’s Cyber Security Ordinance took effect, replacing the repressive 2023 Cyber Security Act. While the new ordinance repealed the harshest elements of the older law, human rights groups argued that it retained restrictive provisions, and both journalists and ordinary citizens continued to face arrest and extralegal violence in connection with their speech. In a separate reform in September, a High Court ruling struck down two past amendments to the constitution, leaving the Supreme Court, not the president in consultation with the Supreme Court, responsible for oversight and discipline of lower court judges.
• Reports of extralegal violence against Hindus and members of other religious minority groups persisted during the year, as did cases of intimidation by Islamist groups that curtailed women’s participation in public life.

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For additional background information, see the reports from the 2024 and 2025 editions of Freedom in the World.