Mother is arrested in Bangladesh after son in US criticizes government online
Not surprised.<p>Bangladeshi politics still has the scars of their Independence War and the subsequent coups as the families leading both the Awami Party (the ruling party) and the Nationalist Party (the current opposition but formerly in power) have been in a violent struggle with each other since the 80s (eg. The current president Sheikh Hasina literally saw her father shot by the General who&#x27;s wife is leading the BNP).<p>This rivalry has been further inflamed by the power struggle between China and India, as the BNP leans closer to China+Pakistan and the BAP leans closer to India. This has incentivized toxic political behavior - check out Nepal for another buffer zone seeing similarly dysfunctional politics.<p>Over the past few years, BNP multiple activists have been shot and arrested, and the party was essentially banned a couple years ago, and the US has starting placing limited sanctions against the BAP, though I doubt they would have much impact as UAE+KSA+India+Thailand+Singapore haven&#x27;t enforced sanctions.<p>Also, from an ideology standpoint (though ideology doesn&#x27;t really matter in Asian politics), BAP was traditionally center-left and Secular leaning while BNP was traditionally center-right and also Islamist leaning because the pro-Pakistan Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami was banned in 2013 and it&#x27;s activists joined the BNP.<p>The politics of violence was really inflamed from the early 2010s when the founders of the JeI was executed after being found guilty of murders, rapes, and torture of Bangladeshi nationalists and Hindus during the Bangladeshi War of Independence, which then hardened the ideological battle lines. This lead to massive riots in retaliation, which had a direct impact on governance in Bangladesh and even India, as the same ethnicities live across the border.<p>On top of that, the Rohingya refugee crisis has destabilized Eastern Bangladesh as there aren&#x27;t enough jobs or ability to provide aid, causing some Rohingya to turn to the Drug Trade as Myanmar is a major Opium and Meth (ever heard of Yaba in Thailand?) manufacturing region.