Authorities shut all public and private universities across the country from Monday, bringing forward the Eid ⁠al-Fitr holidays as part ⁠of emergency measures to conserve electricity and fuel.

Officials said the move will not only ⁠reduce electricity consumption but also ease traffic congestion, which leads to fuel wastage.

They said the university campuses consume large amounts of electricity for residential halls, classrooms, laboratories and air conditioning, and the early closure would help ‌ease pressure on the country’s strained power system.

“The decision has been taken to reduce electricity and fuel consumption considering the current global situation,” Bangladesh’s Ministry of Education said in a directive circulated to university authorities.

Government  and private schools are already closed for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, meaning most educational institutions across the country will now remain shut during the period.

Bangladesh, which relies on imports for 95 percent of its energy needs, on Friday also imposed daily limits on fuel sales after panic buying and stockpiling.

As part of ⁠broader austerity measures, the government has also asked all foreign-curriculum schools and private coaching centres to suspend ⁠operations during this period to limit electricity use.

Alongside the closures, the government has issued guidelines encouraging institutions and offices to use electricity more efficiently, including maximising natural daylight and minimising unnecessary lighting and power consumption.

The moves came as Bangladesh faces mounting uncertainty over fuel and gas supplies following disruptions to global energy markets ⁠caused by the United States-Israel war on Iran.

The  war has snowballed into a wider conflict in the ⁠Middle East, severely hampering oil and gas exports, and driving up costs.

Severe  ⁠gas shortages have already forced Bangladesh to halt operations at four of its five state-run fertiliser factories, redirecting available gas to power plants to avoid widespread outages.

The country of 170 million people – the world’s eighth most populous – has ‌also bought LNG from the spot market at sharply higher prices while seeking additional cargoes to bridge supply gaps.

“We are doing everything ‌we ‌can to reduce consumption and ensure stability in power, fuel and import supplies,” a senior official in the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources said.

Energy analysts say such steps can offer short-term relief for the power sector while authorities work to stabilise fuel imports and manage distribution. However, they warn that prolonged interruptions to the academic calendar could create challenges for students if the energy crisis continues.

Authorities have not indicated how long the closures will remain in place, though institutions are expected to resume normal academic schedules after the Eid holidays if the energy situation improves.

Muhammad Yunus made the announcement at the end of a day of celebrations for what some have called the country’s “second liberation”.

Sheikh Hasina fled to India on 5 August last year, following weeks of student-led protests, bringing an end to 15 years of increasingly authoritarian rule.

Nobel laureate Yunus was brought in to head a caretaker government days later, promising reforms which some say he has struggled to deliver amid continuing political turmoil and a struggle to maintain law and order.

Among the issues dividing the country’s politicians has been the date of the election. Yunus initially suggested June 2026 as a potential date.

However, representatives of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as well as the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party and the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP), all joined Yunus on stage in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday.

Later, Yunus said he would write to the Election Commission to request the vote be held “before Ramadan in February 2026”.

“For many years, none of us have been able to vote,” the 85-year-old said in a televised broadcast. “This time, we will all vote. No one will be left out. Let us all be able to say, ‘I cast my vote to set the country on the path to building a new Bangladesh’.”

Tuesday also saw Yunus reiterate promises on widespread reform, reading out the “July Declaration”, which seeks to recognise the student-led protests which toppled Hasina in the constitution.

Hasina’s time in office was marked by widespread allegations of human rights violations and the murder and jailing of political rivals. Members of the Awami League government ruthlessly cracked down on dissent. The BB spoke to numerous people who were “disappeared” into a network of secret jails across the country.

But it was the student-led protest against a civil service jobs quota system which escalated into calls for the government to stand aside in July and August 2024 that eventually prompted Hasina to flee.

The government collapsed, and the Awami League has since been banned. Analysts note hundreds of Awami League supporters have been detained without trial over the last 12 months.

As part of the declaration read on Tuesday, those who were killed in the uprising will be recognised as “national heroes”, Yunus said.

The document – which also promises a democratic state that would uphold the rule of law and moral values, as well as a justice process for those who engaged in violence during Hasina’s rule – is seen by advocates as the basis of institutional reform, although critics say it is largely symbolic and without power.

Meanwhile, in an open letter to Bangladesh’s citizens on Monday, Hasina argued she had not actually stood aside, describing the events of 2024 as a “coup”.

“Despite claims to the contrary, I never resigned from my duties as your prime minister,” she wrote.

“I believe in you. I believe in Bangladesh. And I believe that our best days are yet to come.”

Hasina is currently on trial in absentia in Bangladesh, having refused to return to face charges which amount to crimes against humanity, related to the deadly crackdown on protesters which left hundreds dead. She denies the charges.

Last month, after decades of troubled relations, the two countries began directly trading for the first time, with Dhaka importing 50,000 tonnes of rice from Pakistan. Direct flights and military contacts have also been revived, visa procedures have been simplified, and there are reports of co-operation on security matters.

The countries – separated by the landmass of India – have deep, painful historical ties. The animosity between them goes back to 1971, when Bangladesh – then known as East Pakistan – launched a struggle to gain independence from Islamabad. India supported the Bengali rebels during the nine-month war which led to the formation of Bangladesh.

While the scars from that period run deep, Dhaka had cordial relations with Islamabad between 2001 and 2006, when a coalition of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami governed the country.

This changed during Hasina’s 15-year rule from 2009 – when she was strongly backed by Delhi and maintained a distance from Pakistan. But after she fled to India following mass protests against her government, ties seem to be thawing.

“For the past 15 years, the Pakistan-Bangladesh relationship was on a slightly difficult trajectory,” says Humayun Kabir, a former senior Bangladeshi diplomat, adding that the relationship seems to now be returning to that of “two normal neighbours”.

The developments are being watched closely, particularly in India, which has a long history of hostile relations with Pakistan.

Relations between Dhaka and Delhi have been frosty since Hasina’s exit. India has not reacted to Bangladesh’s demands to extradite her to face charges of crimes against humanity, money laundering and corruption. Hasina denies the accusations against her.

Some experts think the reviving of relations between Dhaka and Islamabad is a strategic move.

“Pakistan and Bangladesh have a tactical relationship at the moment. Together, they want to represent a pushback against the dominance of India,” says Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani academic who is a senior fellow at King’s College in London.

There have been other developments apart from starting direct trade.

Muhammad Yunus, head of the interim Bangladesh government, met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at multilateral forums several times in recent months.

And then there is a growing military relationship.

A high-level Bangladeshi military delegation made a rare visit to Pakistan in January and held talks with influential army chief General Asim Munir. The Bangladeshi navy also participated in a multinational maritime exercise organised by Pakistan off the Karachi coast in February. .

Veena Sikri, who was India’s high commissioner to Bangladesh between 2003 and 2006, describes the growing closeness between Dhaka and Islamabad as a “déjà vu” moment.

During her tenure in Dhaka, she said, India repeatedly raised the issue of “Indian insurgents getting trained inside Bangladesh with the support of the ISI [Pakistan’s intelligence agency] and a section of the Bangladeshi military”.

“We even provided evidence to Bangladeshi authorities,” she said.

Authorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh denied these allegations at the time.

The long, porous border between India and Bangladesh makes it relatively easy for armed insurgent groups from India’s north-eastern states to cross over from Bangladesh. But, after Hasina’s Awami League came to power in 2009, it cracked down on these groups and dismantled their bases.

So the revival of military ties between Bangladesh and Pakistan is “a major security concern for India”, says Ms Sikri.

“It’s not just the military relationship. The Pakistani establishment is also reviving ties with Bangladeshi Islamist parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami, which supported Islamabad during Bangladesh’s independence war,” she adds.

The Yunus administration’s press office has flatly rejected Indian media reports that senior ISI officials have visited Dhaka. It has also described reports that claim Pakistani operatives were working to reopen a camp of an Indian insurgent group in Bangladesh as “baseless”.

Pakistan’s military did not respond to BBC questions on India’s concerns over the future role of the ISI in Bangladesh.

Analysts say Bangladeshi politicians are aware that, given the close economic and linguistic ties, Dhaka cannot afford to take an anti-India stance.

And despite apprehensions in Delhi, Bangladeshi diplomats argue that ties with Pakistan cannot be normalised unless issues related to the 1971 war are resolved.

During the war, hundreds of thousands of Bengalis were killed and tens of thousands of women were raped. The war ended with more than 90,000 Pakistani security and civilian personnel surrendering to the joint command of Indian and Bangladeshi forces in what is seen as a humiliating chapter in Islamabad.

Bangladesh has demanded a formal apology from Pakistan for the atrocities committed during the war but Islamabad has shown no inclination to do so.

“Pakistan needs to own the crimes that had taken place during the independence war,” said Mr Kabir, the former Bangladeshi diplomat. “We had also raised the issue of the division of pre-1971 assets between the two nations in several bilateral meetings with Pakistan.”

Even former Pakistani military officers like Ikram Sehgal accept that “the main stumbling block in bilateral ties is the requirement of the Bangladeshis that Pakistanis should apologise for what happened in 1971”.

However, the retired Pakistan army major insists that Bangladesh should also address the issue of attacks by Bengalis on Urdu speakers during the struggle for independence.

“I was a witness to the atrocities that took place against the Urdu-speaking Bihari people [in East Pakistan],” Mr Sehgal, who now lives in Karachi, told the BBC.

While history casts a shadow over ties between Dhaka and Islamabad, economists point out the two countries can first focus on improving bilateral trade, which currently stands at less than $700m (£540m), mostly in favour of Pakistan.

“Pakistan’s more than 250 million population is a solid market for Bangladesh in the medium to long term,” says Sabrin Beg, an associate professor of economics at the University of Delaware.

Currently, there are constraints including high tariffs on both sides and businesses and exporters face visa and travel obstacles, she points out. However, Ms Beg says “improved bilateral political and trade relations will ease these constraints”.

Some of these issues may be discussed during Pakistani foreign minister Ishaq Dar’s visit to Dhaka in April. By the end of the year Bangladesh is expected to hold general elections and a new government may have a different set of foreign policy priorities.

But, whatever happens, the stakes are high for Delhi, which strongly feels that a stable and friendly Bangladesh is necessary to maintain peace and stability in its north-eastern states.

The girl was raped while visiting her elder sister’s house in the city of Magura some time between the night of 5 March and the following morning, according to a case filed by her mother.

The elder sister’s 18-year-old husband, along with his parents and brother, were arrested and placed on remand.

On Thursday night, after hearing news of the child’s death, an angry mob descended on the house where the incident is alleged to have taken place, setting it on fire.

The girl died at about 13:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Thursday after suffering three cardiac arrests, according to a statement by the government’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) department.

“Although doctors managed to stabilize the condition twice, the heart failed to restart after the third episode,” the statement said.

She had spent six days in a critical condition at the Combined Military Hospital in the capital Dhaka, after being admitted on 8 March.

“I thought my daughter would survive,” her mother said following the girl’s death, according to local media. “If she had made it through, I would never have let her go anywhere alone again.”

The girl’s body was taken back to Magura in an army helicopter, which landed at the local stadium around 18:00 to fierce protests.

Aiyub Ali, officer-in-charge of Magura Sadar Police Station, said that authorities struggled to bring the situation under control, according to local news outlet The Daily Star.

Thousands of people gathered in the public square in Magura for the girl’s namaz-e-janaza, the Islamic funeral prayer, before she was laid to rest at 19:30.

An absentee funeral was also held for the girl at Dhaka University, in the nation’s capital, followed by a protest march and speeches by female students.

Many protesters demanded that the government expedite justice for rape victims and reform laws related to women and children’s safety.

Protesters also called for greater clarity around the legal definitions of what constitutes rape in Bangladesh, which they said were currently ambiguous.

The trial of the rape and murder case is expected to begin within the next seven days, according to legal advisor Asif Nazrul.

“DNA sample collection has been completed, we hope to get the report within the next five days,” Mr Nazrul told a press briefing at the Secretariat on Thursday – adding that statements had already been taken from 12 to 13 people.

“If we can start the trial within seven days, our judges will be able to ensure justice with the utmost speed,” he added.

The rape of minors is punishable by death in Bangladesh, as per a law that was passed in 2020.

The introduction of that law followed a series of high-profile sexual violence cases, including the brutal gang assault on a 37-year-old woman that was filmed and spread on social media.

Less than a week after the rape of the young girl in Magura, media reports emerged of at least three rapes of children of around the same age in different parts of Bangladesh.

In some cases the accused were neighbours of the victim, while others were close relatives.

According to statistics from the Law and Arbitration Center, 3,438 child rape cases have been filed in Bangladesh in the last eight years, and there have been many more rape victims.

At least 539 of them are under the age of six, and 933 are between the ages of seven and twelve.

Research has shown that in most cases, children are sexually abused or raped by people they know.

“I had no idea I’d be leading the government,” Muhammad Yunus told the BBC. “I had never run a government machine before and had to get the buttons right.

“Once that settled down, we started organising things,” the Nobel-prize winning economist said, adding that restoring law and order and fixing the economy were priorities for the country.

It’s unclear if Hasina, who fled into exile in India, and her party will participate in elections Yunus hopes to hold later this year. She is wanted in Bangladesh for alleged crimes against humanity.

“They [the Awami League] have to decide if they want to do it, I cannot decide for them,” said Yunus in an interview with the BBC at his official residence in Dhaka.

“The election commission decides who participates in the election.”

He said: “Peace and order is the most important thing, and the economy. It’s a shattered economy, a devastated economy.

“It’s as if there’s been some terrible tornado for 16 years and we’re trying to pick up the pieces.”

Sheikh Hasina was elected prime minister in 2009 and ruled Bangladesh with an iron fist. Members of her Awami League government ruthlessly cracked down on dissent. There were widespread allegations of human rights violations and the murder and jailing of political rivals while she was prime minister.

A student-led uprising forced Ms Hasina from office in August. At the behest of protesters, Yunus came back to Bangladesh to lead the new interim government.

He says he will hold elections between December 2025 and March 2026, depending on how quickly his government can institute reforms he believes necessary for free and fair elections.

“If reforms can be done as quickly as we wish, then December would be the time that we would hold elections. If you have a longer version of reforms, then we may need a few more months.”

“We are coming from complete disorder,” he said, referring to the violent protests that engulfed Bangladesh last summer. “People getting shot, killed.”

But almost seven months on, people in Dhaka say law and order has not yet been restored, and that things are not getting better.

“Better is a relative term,” he said. “If you are comparing it to the last year for example at the same time, it looks okay.

“What is happening right now, is no different than any other time.”

Yunus blames many of Bangladesh’s current woes on the previous government.

“I am not supporting that these things should happen. I’m saying that, you have to consider, we are not an ideal country or an ideal city that suddenly we made. It’s a continuum of the country that we inherited, a country that’s been running for many, many years.”

Victims of Sheikh Hasina’s brutal regime remain angry. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in recent months, demanding she be prosecuted for the deadly crackdown on student protesters.

A court in Bangladesh has issued a warrant for her arrest, but India has yet to respond.

Now, under Yunus’s leadership, there are questions about the safety of those belonging to Sheikh Hasina’s political party.

In February, several homes of Awami League members, including that of the founder of Bangladesh – Hasina’s late father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – were vandalised and set on fire after her supporters were told she would give an address on YouTube.

In a post on social media, the Awami League accused the interim government of justifying violence.

When asked by the BBC about claims by members of the Awami League that Bangladesh is not safe for them, Yunus was quick to defend his government.

“There’s a court, there’s a law, there’s a police station, they can go and complain, register their complaint,” he said. “You just don’t go to a BBC correspondent to complain, you go to the police station to complain and see whether the law is taking its course.”

The Trump administration’s decision to cut foreign aid and effectively end almost all programmes funded by the US Agency for International Development will have an impact on countries like Bangladesh.

“It is their decision,” says Yunus.

“It’s been helpful. Because they are doing things that we wanted to get done, like fighting corruption and things like that, which we couldn’t afford right away.”

The United States is the third largest supplier of official development assistance to Bangladesh. Last year the US committed $450m in foreign aid.

When asked how it will make up the shortfall, Yunus says “When it happens, we will make do.”

They will be having talks with Chinese government officials and senior members of the ruling Communist Party, a delegation leader confirmed with the BBC.

Analysts say China is making overtures while diplomatic tensions have risen between Bangladesh and India on a range of issues.

This includes ousted Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina living in exile in India. Dhaka has requested her extradition but Delhi has refused.

Abdul Moyeen Khan, a senior official from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) who’s leading the delegation in Beijing, told the BBC: “It’s basically a goodwill visit, initiated by Beijing.”

“It is unique because China this time has invited a team representing various groups in Bangladesh.”

Many of the delegation members are from the BNP and its allies. The BNP, headed by former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, is one of the main parties in Bangladesh, besides the Awami League led by Hasina.

The delegation also includes several representatives from the student movement that began the mass uprising against Hasina that eventually ousted the prime minister in August last year.

An interim government led by the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is currently in charge.

It has been urging India to repatriate Hasina to face charges of crimes against humanity and money laundering, among other allegations. The UN says Hasina’s government’s crackdown on protesters during the uprising killed about 1,400 people.

So far India has showed no sign of extraditing Hasina, who denies the charges.

Delhi and Dhaka had maintained close ties during the 15-year rule of Ms Hasina, who was widely seen by her critics as pro-India, although she also balanced it with her relationship with Beijing.

Following the fall of Hasina, Beijing has stepped up its interaction with Bangladeshi leaders, activists and delegations, including those from Islamist parties.

This week’s visit follows a meeting between the Bangladesh interim government’s foreign policy advisor Touhid Hossain and the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing in January.

It also marks the second time BNP officials have visited China in recent months, after Beijing hosted a BNP delegation late last year.

With the political vacuum and absence of India’s influence, analysts say, Beijing is trying to increase its foothold in Bangladesh, a country of about 170 million people.

China is Bangladesh’s largest trading partner with bilateral trade amounting to around $24bn (£19bn) – the vast majority of that consists of Chinese exports to the South Asian country.

The Bangladeshi military also heavily relies on Chinese equipment and ammunition with more than 70% of supplies coming from China.

Compared to Beijing’s overtures, India has had very limited interactions with the interim government and other Bangladeshi political leaders in the past six months.

The BNP held a protest in December alleging India’s interference in Bangladesh’s internal matters by hosting Hasina. Some advisors of the interim government have also criticised Delhi on the same issue.

This criticism has sparked sharp reaction from Delhi.

The Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said last week that it was up to Bangladesh to decide on “what kind of relationship they want with us”.

He described the criticism of India by Bangladeshi officials and politicians as “absolutely ridiculous”.

Some argue that this increasingly tense rhetoric between Dhaka and Delhi could push Bangladesh towards China.

The latest events indicate that Bangladesh has joined fellow South Asian countries Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Nepal as a target for both Delhi and Beijing, as the superpowers jostle for influence.

“I don’t believe India should consider the whole subcontinent is under Delhi’s sphere of influence. That attitude would make India suffer,” Chinese analyst Zhou Bo, a senior fellow at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, told the BBC.

UN human rights investigators accused the deposed government of a brutal response to mass opposition last year, in which they said up to 1,400 people had been killed, mostly by security forces.

The UN team said “an official policy to attack and violently repress anti-government protesters” had been directed by political leaders and senior security officials.

Hasina, who had been in office for 15 years, fled by helicopter to India shortly before crowds stormed her residence last August.

The unrest began as student-led protests against quotas in civil service jobs and escalated into a countrywide movement to oust Hasina and her Awami League Party following a deadly police crackdown. Thousands more were injured in the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its war of independence in 1971.

The UN investigators’ findings show the then government, including Sheikh Hasina, “were aware of and involved in very serious offences”, UN human rights chief Volker Türk told a news conference in Geneva.

“Among our key findings, there are reasonable grounds to believe that officials of the former government, its security and intelligence apparatus, together with violent elements associated with the former ruling party, committed serious and systematic human rights violations,” Mr Türk said.

The UN investigators documented the shooting at point-blank range of some protesters, the deliberate maiming of others, arbitrary arrests and torture.

Children, too, were targeted – the report estimates up to 13% of the 1,400 people killed between between 1 July and 15 August were children.

“The brutal response was a calculated and well-co-ordinated strategy by the former government to hold onto power in the face of mass opposition,” Mr Türk said.

He said the evidence gathered by his office painted “a disturbing picture of rampant state violence and targeted killings”.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture, were carried out with the knowledge, co-ordination and direction of the political leadership and senior security officials as part of a strategy to suppress the protests.”

The report was requested by Bangladesh’s caretaker leader, Muhammad Yunus, who said he and his interim government remained “committed to transforming Bangladesh into a country in which all its people can live in security and dignity“.

The overall number of deaths given by the UN team is far higher than the 834 most recently estimated by his government..

The UN team that compiled the report included human rights investigators, a forensics physician and a weapons expert. Their findings are mainly based on more than 230 interviews with survivors, witnesses and others. They were given access to medical case files, photos, videos and other material.

“Former senior officials directly involved in handling the protests and other inside sources described how the former prime minister and other senior officials directed and oversaw a series of large-scale operations, in which security and intelligence forces shot and killed protesters or arbitrarily arrested and tortured them,” the report said.

It “found patterns of security forces deliberately and impermissibly killing or maiming protesters, including incidents where people were shot at point-blank range”.

While the report attributes most of the violence to government security forces, it also raises concerns about attacks on those perceived to be supporters of the former government, and against some religious and ethnic groups.

These must be investigated too, the UN Human Rights Office said.

The unrest was sparked by news that Hasina would address the country via social media from India, where she has been inexile since student-led protests ousted her last year.

The 77-year-old Hasina, who was in charge of Bangladesh for20 years, was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.

On Wednesday evening, an excavator smashed down the house of Hasina’s late father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who is also Bangladesh’s founding president. The structure had been repurposed into a museum.

Hasina’s fatheris widely viewed as an independence hero, but anger at his daughter has tarnished his legacy among Hasina’s critics.

In a Facebook livestream, Hasina condemned the attack and demanded “justice”.

“They can demolish a building, but they can’t erase history,” she said.

Hasina, once hailed as a pro-democracy icon, has seen her reputation sour after taking office. She has been accused of rigging elections and jailing her critics, and her administration was widely seen as corrupt.

She faces arrest warrants for cracking down on the student-led protests last year, which saw hundreds of people killed.

While Hasina fled to India last August, anger has not dissipated against her and her Awami League partymates.

On Wednesday, protesters also vandalised and torched the houses and businesses of senior Awami League leaders. There have been calls on social media to rid the country of “pilgrimage sites of fascism”.

Police told the BBC’s Bengali service that around 700 protesters showed up at the residence on Wednesday night, and dozens of police officers were deployed.

Since Hasina’s ouster, a caretaker government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has kept the country running.

But it has struggled to quell lingering unrest. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in recent months, demanding Hasina to be prosecuted for her deadly crackdown on student protesters.

While Yunus’ government tries to get Hasina extradited from India, it is also dealing with a looming economic crisis – Yunus has accused Hasina of faking Bangladesh’s economic growth and laundering billions of dollars during her rule.

Yunus has pledged to hold elections in late 2025 or early 2026.

In a post on X, the Conservative Party leader said: “It’s time for Keir Starmer to sack Tulip Siddiq,” adding that the PM had “appointed his personal friend as anti-corruption minister and she is accused herself of corruption”.

It follows comments from Bangladesh’s new leader, Muhammad Yunus, who told the Sunday Times that Siddiq should apologise after reports she had lived in London properties with links to her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as prime minister of Bangladesh last year and is at the centre of a corruption probe.

Siddiq has referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser and has insisted she has done nothing wrong.In a letter to Sir Laurie Magnus, who polices standards among government ministers, she said: “I am clear that I have done nothing wrong.”

Downing Street previously confirmed Sir Laurie would now conduct a “fact-finding” exercise to determine if “further action” was needed, including a further investigation.

In a post on X, the Conservative Party leader said: “It’s time for Keir Starmer to sack Tulip Siddiq,” adding that the PM had “appointed his personal friend as anti-corruption minister and she is accused herself of corruption”.

Badenoch said Siddiq had become “a distraction when the government should be focused on dealing with the financial problems it has created”.

She added: “Now the government of Bangladesh is raising serious concerns about her links to the regime of Sheikh Hasina”.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Bangladesh’s leader said that properties used by Siddiq should be investigated and handed back to his government if they were gained through “plain robbery”.

Siddiq is economic secretary to the Treasury and responsible for tackling economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance.

The allegations are part of a wider investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into Hasina, who was in charge of Bangladesh for more than 20 years, and was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.

Since fleeing the country Sheikh Hasina has been accused of multiple crimes by the new Bangladeshi government.

In her letter to Sir Laurie Magnus following the allegations Siddiq said: “In recent weeks I have been the subject of media reporting, much of it inaccurate, about my financial affairs and my family’s links to the former government of Bangladesh.”

“I am clear that I have done nothing wrong,” she said, adding: “However, for the avoidance of doubt, I would like you to independently establish the facts about these matters.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir told reporters he had confidence in his minister, adding Siddiq had “acted entirely properly” by referring herself for investigation.

Tulip Siddiq, who as the Treasury’s Economic Secretary is responsible for tackling corruption in UK financial markets, is alleged to have brokered a deal with Russia in 2013 for a new nuclear power plant in Bangladesh that saw £1bn siphoned off into private hands.

The allegation is part of a wider investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into Siddiq’s aunt, Sheikh Hasina, the recently deposed prime minister of the country who fled to India in August.

Siddiq has been approached for comment. The Labour Party and the Treasury declined to comment.

The investigation is based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a senior political opponent of Hasina.

Siddiq has not had any contact with the ACC as part of the investigation.The ACC is also investigating several of Hasina’s family members, including Siddiq’s mother Sheikh Rehana Siddiq, and senior officials from her government.

Hasina, who was in charge of Bangladesh for more than 20 years, was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.Since fleeing the country Hasina has been accused of multiple crimes by the new Bangladeshi government.

Hasina is wanted by Bangladesh’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) for her alleged involvements in “crimes against humanity” that took place during the demonstrations, in which hundreds were killed.

Arrest warrants have also been issued for 45 others, including former government ministers who also fled the country.

Syed Faruk, who runs the UK branch of Hasina’s Awami League party, said the claims were “fabricated”.

Siddiq was elected MP for Hampstead and Highgate in 2015, the north London constituency neighbouring Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s seat of Holborn and St Pancras.

Court documents seen show Hajjaj accused Siddiq of mediating and coordinating meetings for the Bangladeshi officials with the Russian government to build the £10bn Rooppur Power Plant Project.

It is claimed that the deal inflated the price of the plant by £1bn, according to the documents – 30% of which was allegedly distributed to Siddiq and other family members via a complex network of banks and overseas companies.

In total, Hajjaj alleges £3.9bn was siphoned out of the project by Hasina’s family and minister.

Footage from 2013 shows Siddiq attended the deal’s signing by Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, recorded by the Associated Press.