Maldives and Pakistan sign deals as Muizzu makes first visit in 11 years

Bangladesh's under-15 football team has reached Baku for the inaugural FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival, with the squad settling into the Athletes' Village before its opening match against Wales on 24 October.

The 14-player squad was due to hold its first training session in the Azerbaijani capital on Thursday, Bangla Tribune reported. The Bangladesh Football Federation said all players and officials were in good health. Bangladesh play Wales first in Group G, then meet Portugal, Indonesia, Fiji and Burundi across 25 and 26 October, with two matches on each of those days. The team is scheduled to fly home on 3 November.

The tournament is FIFA's first global festival for under-15 boys and is built around giving young players international minutes rather than eliminating them early. Around 190 FIFA member associations are taking part, each with a squad of 14. Matches are eight-a-side and last 40 minutes, split into two 20-minute halves, on pitches 68 metres long and 50 metres wide.

The 32 groups play a round-robin in the first phase. Results then sort the teams into six performance tiers, and every side continues into the second phase. Most matches are at the purpose-built Hovsan Competition Complex, while the tier finals will be held at Baku's Crystal Hall. FIFA says nearly 1,000 matches will be played in a week.

Bangladesh's place followed a year of domestic age-group work. Manjur Alam, chairman of the BFF's U-15 tournament committee, said in August that the invitation was 'a reward from FIFA for keeping the U-15 tournament active throughout the year across the country last year.' The federation shortlisted 25 players from 137 who came through last year's BFF U-15 tournament, and planned trials, including for overseas-based players, before the final 14 were chosen.

For the players, the week is a step into a different level of competition. Group G mixes two European sides, Wales and Portugal, with Indonesia, Fiji and Burundi, bringing together teams from different confederations and very different football backgrounds. Bangladesh's squad has been built mainly from domestic age-group football, and the group stage will test how that preparation holds up against opponents with more international exposure.

The results will decide Bangladesh's tier, and with it the level of opposition they face in the second phase. That makes the three group days important beyond the scorelines: they determine whether the team competes for Tier A, the championship tier, or in one of the lower tiers.

What the trip means for Bangladesh will be judged over a longer period. The country's senior men's team has had little success on the world stage, and the value of a first appearance at a FIFA festival will depend on whether the experience feeds back into domestic age-group football, coaching and selection. FIFA plans to add girls' teams in 2027 and to invite both boys' and girls' teams from 2028, so this edition is also a template for how federations handle future entries.

After the group stage, 27 October is a rest day. The tier stage runs from 28 October, with the finals on 30 October at Crystal Hall. Bangladesh are due home on 3 November.

A young man has been arrested in Rajshahi over a Facebook comment that appeared to suggest a sniper could have targeted Prime Minister Tarique Rahman during his visit to the city this week. The remark was posted under a photograph of the bus that carried the prime minister, spread quickly online, and drew concern from local BNP leaders before security agencies tracked the account and detained him.

Lieutenant Colonel Faisal Ishtiaque, commander of SRB-5, confirmed on Thursday morning that the man had been detained and handed over to the police. He did not give further details. Rajshahi Metropolitan Police had not announced a case, a specific charge or the man's legal status by Thursday midday, and it was not clear whether he had been produced before a court or had a lawyer.

The post that prompted the comment was published by a Facebook page called The Beauty of Rajshahi. It carried a photograph of the bus used during the visit and a caption that questioned the arrangement: "So I understand everything! Where is our prime minister's red-and-green bulletproof bus in Rajshahi? Why a RUET bus? Do you know, people of Rajshahi?"

Beneath that post, a comment from a user account read: "What a big opportunity. Only a sniper was missing." The comment was quickly screenshotted and shared, and it is that remark that brought the authorities in.

The prime minister landed at Shah Makhdum Airport at about 3pm on Tuesday on a special aircraft. He then travelled into the city on a bus belonging to Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), addressed a public meeting at the historic Madrasa Maidan, visited the Dharmasabha temple for Durga Puja, and returned to the airport on the same bus. Crowds lined the route and the prime minister waved from the moving vehicle.

The choice of a university bus rather than the prime minister's own bulletproof vehicle became a talking point online because of the security normally surrounding a head of government. The page's caption treated the substitution as a puzzle rather than a security failure, but the comment beneath it changed the tone of the discussion.

Local BNP leaders condemned the remark. Mamunur Rashid Mamun, president of the Rajshahi city unit of the BNP, said such comments about the prime minister were unacceptable and that the incident should be investigated properly so that those responsible could be brought under the law, adding that peace and stability in the country had to be protected.

Ali Ashraf Masum, a vice-president of the same city unit, said party leaders were also worried by what they saw. He said the prime minister's security was a matter of the highest importance and that investigators should establish whether the comment amounted to a threat.

Rajshahi Metropolitan Police spokesperson Additional Deputy Commissioner Gaziur Rahman described the comment as extremely worrying, criminal and irresponsible. He said the matter was being treated seriously and that legal action would follow. Police have not said on what basis the comment is being treated as an offence, nor whether they consider it a threat against the prime minister or an expression of opinion.

The arrest raises questions that remain unanswered. It is not publicly known where the man is being held, whether a first information report has been filed, which legal provision is being applied, or what he has told investigators. Police have also not said whether the account has been verified as belonging to the person detained.

The episode has renewed attention on how online comments about public figures are handled in Bangladesh. The comment was posted in a public thread under a public photograph, but its wording touched on the security of the head of government, a subject that authorities treat with particular sensitivity.

The prime minister's Rajshahi programme itself passed off without incident. He distributed incentive cheques to sugarcane farmers at the Haji Muhammad Mohsin Government High School ground and met leaders of the Hindu community at the Dharmasabha temple. He was later scheduled to travel to Khulna and Bagerhat as part of the same tour.

For now, the facts are narrow: a comment, a photograph, an arrest and a promise of legal action. What happens next depends on whether police file a formal case and bring the man before a court, and on how the law is applied to a remark made on a social media thread. ScrollBeat will update this report when those details are released.