Bangladesh

Bangladesh's prisons hold more than twice their official capacity

Department of Prisons figures put the inmate population at 130,128 on 14 October against a capacity of 45,186, with police arresting more than 1,000 people a day and about two-thirds of prisoners still awaiting trial.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 18 Oct 2026, 09:28

The former Dhaka Central Jail in Old Dhaka, which was closed in 2016 when its inmates were moved to a new jail at Keraniganj. The Keraniganj facility now holds about 14,000 inmates against a capacity of 4,590. Photo: Wasiul Bahar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) Wasiul Bahar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Bangladesh's 75 prisons held 130,128 inmates on 14 October, against a combined official capacity of 45,186, according to Department of Prisons figures reported by Dhaka Tribune. The World Prison Brief, a database run by the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London, put the prison population at 102,180 in September, an occupancy rate of 226.1 per cent — the highest in South Asia.

Police are arresting more than 1,000 people a day. Police Headquarters data cited by Dhaka Tribune show 53,518 arrests during special drives between 1 May and 26 August, part of a broader total of about 195,146 arrests over that period, an average of roughly 1,650 a day.

Most of those held have not been convicted. The World Prison Brief put pre-trial detainees at 66.9 per cent of the prison population in September, and prison officials told Dhaka Tribune that more than 75,000 of the 130,128 inmates were still awaiting trial.

Medical care is thin. Fifty-four prisons have no ambulance and only two permanent doctors work against 151 sanctioned posts, Dhaka Tribune reported. A recently released inmate described wards built for 20 to 25 people holding 70 to 75, and said no doctor was available when people fell ill.

"We struggle to manage the pressure caused by the excess number of inmates," Additional Inspector General of Prisons Md Jahangir Kabir told Dhaka Tribune.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Mohammed Saeed Ahmed Raza said the crowding violated detainees' rights and was straining the courts. The Daily Star reported in August that the prison population had reached 98,233, which officials described as the highest in recent memory. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed told parliament in June that new prison buildings would add about 2,995 places once completed.

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Trump mocks the name 'Mohammad' while joking about Iran at a Georgia rally

The US president told a campaign crowd to 'just say Mohammad' if unsure of a Middle Eastern name, drawing criticism from Muslim advocacy groups.

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US President Donald Trump. Official portrait by Daniel Torok, released into the public domain. Daniel Torok, The White House

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Rights advocates and Muslim advocacy groups criticised the remarks. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose annual report this year attributed rising Islamophobia in the United States in part to Trump's crackdown on immigration and pro-Palestinian protests, has repeatedly faulted his rhetoric. He has intensified such comments during the midterm campaign season, particularly against Muslim Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, who came to the US as a Somali refugee.

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NEXT STORY Business

Bangladesh cuts subsidised rice and flour targets as safety-net spending shifts

The Open Market Sale programme will target 240,000 tonnes of rice and 350,000 tonnes of flour this year, down from last year's sales, while its subsidy falls by Tk 685 crore.

ScrollBeat Desk18 Oct 2026, 10:32Open this article

Kalijira, a Bangladeshi rice variety. The government sells subsidised rice through Open Market Sale outlets. Photo: Masum-al-Hasan Rocky, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Masum-al-Hasan Rocky, Wikimedia Commons

Bangladesh has lowered its targets for selling subsidised rice and flour to low-income households through the Open Market Sale (OMS) programme, after the government cut the scheme's subsidy for the current fiscal year.

Food Ministry data presented at the first meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry on 15 October set an OMS target of 240,000 tonnes of rice and 350,000 tonnes of flour for FY27, The Business Standard reported. In FY26 the government sold 304,000 tonnes of rice and 449,000 tonnes of flour.

The subsidy allocation for OMS was cut by Tk 685 crore to Tk 3,411 crore, down from Tk 4,096 crore a year earlier. A Food Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the allocation was adjusted as part of wider changes to social safety-net spending and that the decision was not final; more funds could be provided if needed.

Under the programme, rice sells at Tk 30 a kilogram, loose flour at Tk 24 a kilogram and a two-kilogram packet of flour at Tk 55, through 1,125 outlets run by dealers nationwide. The government has also stopped selling rice through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh this year, after offering it at subsidised prices last year.

The move follows an existing slide in subsidised distribution. Food ministry data show the government distributed 7.55 lakh tonnes of grain in July-September of FY27, down 7 percent year on year, with OMS sales falling 22 percent to 2.05 lakh tonnes, The Daily Star reported.

Economists warned that the timing is difficult for poor households. "In view of inflation, food distribution should have been increased. We see the opposite," said Nazneen Ahmed, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue. Selim Raihan of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling said cutting food distribution at such a time risks worsening food insecurity and indebtedness.

Trading Corporation of Bangladesh data around mid-October put medium-quality rice at Tk 56-65 a kilogram in Dhaka, while market visits found coarse and medium varieties had risen by Tk 1-2 a kilogram over the previous week.

Pressure on households remains high. September's 12-month average inflation was 8.65 percent, and the World Bank says about 6.2 crore people are one economic shock away from poverty, with national poverty projected to rise to 22.5 percent in 2026. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has projected that about 1.81 crore people would face acute food insecurity between September and December.