New Delhi: The Yunus government in Bangladesh has issued a directive to overturn a decades-old rule under which former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and women officers in the country were addressed as “sir” by public officials.
The administration has also set up a committee to remove more such “odd” honorific titles and protocols.
A statement released by the administration Thursday said that during Hasina’s 16-year rule, she had mandated that she be addressed as “sir”.
“During Sheikh Hasina’s nearly 16-year long autocratic rule, a directive was reportedly issued requiring public officials to address her as ‘sir’. This practice extended to other high-ranking female officials, who were and still are being called ‘sir’ which is clearly odd. On Thursday, 10 July, 2025, the Council of Advisers officially annulled the directive,” the statement read.
Former Bangladesh PM Hasina fled the country post a student-led ouster on 5 August, 2024. She has since been living in India.
For the first time in Bangladesh’s history, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Thursday formally indicted Hasina on charges of crimes against humanity.
The ICT is a domestic war crimes tribunal established by the Hasina government in 2010, primarily to prosecute individuals accused of collaborating with Pakistan during the 1971 war.
The indictment relates to the Hasina-led Awami League government’s violent crackdown on mass anti-government protests during July and August 2024—a movement that ultimately forced Hasina out of power.
According to the tribunal, Hasina directly ordered mass killings, torture and enforced disappearances during the seven-week uprising. Last month, the ICT formally charged her with crimes against humanity in another case, accusing her of “ordering the extermination of protesters”, among other charges.
On 1 June, the charges became public during a live tribunal session. ICT even ordered Bangladeshi authorities to present her before a court on 16 June.
A United Nations report estimates that at least 1,400 protesters were killed in the government crackdown, with children accounting for approximately 12 to 13 percent of the deaths.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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