(NOVEMBER 18-24)

Reports noted that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formed a 29-member polls-time cabinet on November 21, 2014. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the ministers of the interim cabinet would not make any policy decisions and would only be doing routine work during the election period.1

In another development, according to reports, two of Bangladesh’s most wanted men, Subrata Bain and Sajjad Hossain, could be deported back to Bangladesh under a “swap deal” with India in exchange for Anup Chetia, the general secretary of United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). India is understood to have agreed to hand over the duo who are now lodged in Indian jails. Though no timeframe has been fixed for the “swap deal”, it may happen by the end of this year. The duo were handed death sentence by Bangladeshi courts for murder and a grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka in August, 2004. 2

• 1. “No policy decision, only routine work”, The Daily Star, November 21, 2013 at http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/no-policy-decision-only-routine-w....
• 2. “India may swap Subrata Bain, Sajjad for Anup Chetia: New check post opens at Tripura border”, The Daily Star, November 18, 2013 at http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/india-may-swap-subrata-bain-sajja....