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Travel to Bangladesh — Unbiased reviews and great deals from TripAdvisor
Bangladesh
People's Republic of Bangladesh President: Iajuddin Ahmed (2002) Prime Minister: Sheikh Hasina
(2009)
Current government officials
Land area: 51,703 sq mi (133,911 sq km);
total area: 55,598 sq mi (144,000 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 153,546,901 (growth
rate: 2.0%); birth rate: 28.8/1000; infant mortality rate: 57.4/1000;
life expectancy: 63.2; density per sq km: 1,146
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Dhaka, 12,560,000 (metro.area), 5,378,023 (city
proper) Other large cities:
Chittagong, 2,592,400; Khulna, 1,211,500 Monetary unit: Taka
Principal languages:
Bangla (official), English
Ethnicity/race:
Bengali 98%, tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims
(1998)
Religions:
Islam 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)
National Holiday:
Independence Day, March 26 Literacy rate: 43% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.):
$301.4 billion; per capita $2,100. Real growth rate: 5.4%.
Inflation: 6.7%. Unemployment: 2.5% (includes
underemployment). Arable land: 55.39%. Agriculture:
rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses,
oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry. Labor force: 66.6
million; note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE,
Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia; agriculture 63%, industry 11%, services 26%
(FY95/96). Industries: cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea
processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light
engineering, sugar. Natural resources: natural gas, arable
land, timber, coal. Exports: $9.372 billion (2005 est.):
garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood
(2001). Imports: $12.97 billion (2005 est.): machinery and
equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum
products, cement (2000). Major trading partners: U.S., Germany,
UK, France, Italy, India, China, Singapore, Kuwait, Japan, Hong Kong
(2004).
Member of Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main
lines in use: 831,000 (2004); mobile cellular: 2,781,600 (2004).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 15, FM 13, shortwave 2 (2006)
Television broadcast stations: 15 (1999). Internet
hosts: 266 (2005). Internet users: 300,000 (2005). Transportation: Railways: total: 2,706 km
(2004). Highways: total: 239,226 km; paved: 22,726 km;
unpaved: 216,500 km (2003). Waterways: 8,372 km; note: includes
2,635 km main cargo routes (2005). Ports and harbors:
Chittagong, Mongla Port. Airports: 16 (2005). International disputes: discussions with
India remain stalled to delimit a small section of river boundary,
exchange 162 miniscule enclaves in both countries, allocate divided
villages, and stop illegal cross-border trade, migration, violence,
and transit of terrorists through the porous border; Bangladesh
resists India's attempts to fence or wall off high-traffic sections of
the porous boundary; a joint Bangladesh-India boundary inspection in
2005 revealed 92 pillars are missing; dispute with India over New
Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay of Bengal deters
maritime boundary delimitation; Burmese Muslim refugees strain
Bangladesh's meager resources
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Bangladesh, on the northern coast of the Bay of
Bengal, is surrounded by India, with a small common border with Myanmar in
the southeast. The country is low-lying riverine land traversed by the
many branches and tributaries of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers.
Tropical monsoons and frequent floods and cyclones inflict heavy damage in
the delta region.
Government
Parliamentary democracy.
History
What is now called Bangladesh is part of the
historic region of Bengal, the northeast portion of the Indian
subcontinent. Bangladesh consists primarily of East Bengal (West Bengal is
part of India and its people are primarily Hindu) plus the Sylhet district
of the Indian state of Assam.
The earliest reference to the region was to a
kingdom called Vanga, or Banga (c. 1000 B.C.).
Buddhists ruled for centuries, but by the 10th century Bengal was
primarily Hindu. In 1576, Bengal became part of the Mogul Empire, and the
majority of East Bengalis converted to Islam. Bengal was ruled by British
India from 1757 until Britain withdrew in 1947, and Pakistan was founded
out of the two predominantly Muslim regions of the Indian subcontinent.
For almost 25 years after independence from Britain, its history was part
of Pakistan's (see Pakistan).
West Pakistan and East Pakistan were united by
religion (Islam), but their peoples were separated by culture, physical
features, and 1,000 miles of Indian territory.
The Formation of an Independent Bangladesh
Tension between East and West Pakistan existed
from the outset because of their vast geographic, economic, and cultural
differences. East Pakistan's Awami League, a political party founded by
the Bengali nationalist Sheik Mujibur Rahman in 1949, sought independence
from West Pakistan. Although 56% of the population resided in East
Pakistan, the West held the lion's share of political and economic power.
In 1970, East Pakistanis secured a majority of the seats in the national
assembly. President Yahya Khan postponed the opening of the national
assembly in an attempt to circumvent East Pakistan's demand for greater
autonomy. As a consequence, East Pakistan seceded and the independent
state of Bangladesh, or Bengali nation, was proclaimed on March 26, 1971.
Civil war broke out, and with the help of Indian troops in the last few
weeks of the war, East Pakistan defeated West Pakistan on Dec. 16, 1971.
An estimated one million Bengalis were killed in the fighting or later
slaughtered. Ten million more took refuge in India. In Feb. 1974, Pakistan
agreed to recognize the independent state of Bangladesh.
Founding president Sheikh Mujibur was
assassinated in 1975, as was the next president, Zia ur-Rahman. On March
24, 1982, Gen. Hossain Mohammad Ershad, army chief of staff, took control
in a bloodless coup but was forced to resign on Dec. 6, 1990, amid violent
protests and numerous allegations of corruption. A succession of prime
ministers governed in the 1990s, including Khaleda Zia, wife of the
assassinated president Zia ur-Rahman, and Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the
daughter of Sheik Mujibur.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina completed her
five-year term as prime minister in July 2000—the first leader to do
so since the country gained independence from Pakistan in 1974. In Oct.
2001 elections, Khaleda Zia again won the prime ministership.
Investigations into Governmental Corruption Begin
Violence erupted in Oct. 2006, when Zia's term
ended and President Ahmed took over as the head of a caretaker
administration. An alliance of parties, headed by the Awami League, said
it would boycott the Jan. 2007 elections, alleging corruption in the
electoral commission. The violence intensified in Jan. 2007, prompting
President Ahmed to declare a state of emergency and postpone the
elections. Fakhruddin Ahmed became the interim head of the government. He
swiftly opened a broad corruption investigation that resulted in the
imprisonment of dozens of prominent officials, the seizure of luxury
vehicles, and the freezing of bank accounts. In March, Tarique Rahman, the
son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was arrested in the
investigation and charged with extortion. Khaleda Zia herself was arrested
and charged with corruption in September. In addition, Sheikh Hasina was
arrested and charged with corruption and organizing the murder of four
supporters of a rival party.
Mudslides set off by heavy monsoon rains killed
at least 100 people in June 2007 in Chittagong, a port in the southern
part of the country. In November, Cyclone Sidr, with winds over 100 miles
per hour, killed nearly 3,500 people in southern Bangladesh. The United
Nations reported that a million people were left homeless.
Bangladesh went ahead with its general election in December 2008. It
was the first general election since the army-backed caretaker government
took power in January 2007. The Awami League, headed by Sheikh Hasina, won
in a landslide, taking 262 of 299 seats in Parliament. The vote was
considered fair and largely free of scandal. Sheikh Hasina was sworn in as
prime minister in January 2009.
See also Encyclopedia: Bangladesh. U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Bangladesh Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics www.bbsgov.org
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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