PM Tarique Rahman says ousted autocrat is paying a party to stir unrest

Fifty-six candidates who were recommended for the 45th Bangladesh Civil Service but left out of this month's appointment gazette are continuing a sit-in at Dhaka University and say they will begin an indefinite hunger strike if the government does not explain why they were dropped.

The Public Service Commission recommended 1,807 candidates in November last year. The Ministry of Public Administration's gazette, published on 14 October, appointed 1,702 of them and told the new officers to report to their ministries or divisions by 1 November. It did not say why the remaining 105 were left out.

Candidates who stay in touch with one another say 49 of the 105 did not complete medical examinations or other procedures. That leaves 56 who say they have never been given a reason for their exclusion. Nine of the 56 are from the Hindu community, according to the group; Prothom Alo listed their names and cadres.

The group met State Minister for Public Administration Md Abdul Bari on Saturday and handed him a memorandum asking for a review. He advised them to file individual applications, which they submitted to the ministry's senior secretary the following day. Since Monday they have been sitting in front of the Raju Memorial Sculpture from noon until 6:00pm. Md Mehedi Hasan, one of the candidates, said the sit-in would continue and that an indefinite hunger strike would start on Wednesday if there was no decision.

Several of the excluded candidates are not first-time applicants. Shubhra Debnath, recommended for the health cadre, was also left out of the 48th special BCS gazette in January and has since been recommended for the police cadre in the 46th BCS. "I have no idea who is acting against me or why," he told Prothom Alo. "However, the government could not exclude me on the grounds of merit. What is happening is deliberate."

Partha Sarkar, a veterinary graduate of Bangladesh Agricultural University who was recommended for the livestock cadre, turned down a scholarship in Australia in 2024 while waiting for the appointment. "I have never felt this bad in my life," he said. Chinmoy Barman, recommended for the police cadre, said he placed 76th on merit and that his father is a fisherman. HM Ferdous Khan, recommended for the education cadre, said he could not face relatives who now look at him with suspicion.

The gazette gave no reasons, and the candidates' accounts differ on why they believe they were removed. Several told The Daily Star they had no criminal cases and suspected their past political links were the reason. Two said they had been members of the now-banned Chhatra League. Fazle Iffat Anik said he joined the organisation to secure dormitory accommodation, while Sazzad Hossain said he had taken part in the July 2024 uprising after setting his political identity aside.

Others say they have no political background at all. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Nandi of Sylhet Agricultural University said he could not even guess why he was excluded. Nur-e Alam Miazi, a Rajshahi University student, said he had been told a government agency reported him as an active Chhatra League member; he already works as an assistant director in the Ansar cadre after joining through the 44th BCS. Iftekharul Islam, recommended for the administration cadre, is already an assistant surgeon through the 48th special BCS.

The exclusions sit awkwardly with assurances given by the government. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said on 1 October that nobody would be excluded on the basis of political identity, after protests over 46 candidates left out of the 49th special BCS. Most of those candidates were later included. Prothom Alo reported that 668 people were provisionally nominated for the education cadre in that batch and 611 were appointed.

Public Administration Secretary Quamruzzaman Chowdhury told The Daily Star that the gazette had been issued following established procedures. "No one was excluded," he said, adding that the government had followed the meritocracy declared by the prime minister and that this time was no exception. Asked whether another gazette would be issued, he said he could not say for certain and that the process was still running.

What remains unexplained is the substance of the verification that removed the 56. The government has not published the findings, and it has not said whether the candidates will be told what was held against them or given a chance to respond. It is also unclear whether a supplementary gazette is being prepared, how many of the 56 could be reinstated, and what the government will say about the nine Hindu candidates in the group.

For now the practical effect is a stalled career for people who passed every stage of the examination. The 1,702 appointees are due to join by 1 November. The 56 say they will stay at the Raju sculpture until they receive an answer, with the hunger strike planned from Wednesday.

Assam's government has evicted about 1,000 families from forest land in three districts, with the largest operation carried out in Nagaon over the weekend. Residents say the drive also demolished more than 10 mosques and left families who had lived in the area for generations without shelter.

The evictions took place on Saturday and Sunday in Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat, according to the state administration. Prothom Alo reported that more than 638 hectares of protected forest land were cleared in a week. The biggest single operation was in the Lutumari reserved forest in Nagaon on Sunday, where about 314 hectares were cleared and around 550 families were affected, the newspaper said.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma described the operation as the "Rudra Roop", or fierce form, of his administration, according to Prothom Alo. He said the land had been illegally occupied and that the government was working to secure Assam's interests.

Forest officials gave a different emphasis. They told Prothom Alo that residents had been asked by loudspeaker announcements in August to leave, that about 90 per cent of the people described as encroachers left voluntarily before the drive began, and that the operation followed court orders.

The families who remained describe a different history. Abdul Noor, 44, who lost his home on Sunday, told Scroll that the government resettled the community in 1974. He said his landless forebears came from nearby Juria town and that 300 families received four bighas each, and that many of them worked as labourers for the forest department. Noor said residents had petitioned the Gauhati High Court against the eviction but received no relief. He added that more than 10 mosques, some more than 50 years old, were also demolished.

A student group, the All Assam Minorities Students' Union, says the drive targeted one community. Its president said many of the families removed from the Lutumari forest had been temporarily resettled there by the government in 1973, and that notices had not yet been served on residents of other faiths in the same area. The group also says more than 1,000 homes and several mosques were destroyed. These claims have not been independently verified.

The numbers remain disputed. Officials put the number of evicted families at about 1,000. The Business Standard, citing Scroll and figures from the state revenue and disaster management department and district authorities, reported that 547 families were removed on the first day across the three districts — 336 in Nagaon, 152 in Hojai and 59 in Golaghat — and that more than 600 families were removed in Lutumari the next day, putting the two-day total above 1,100.

The background is a long dispute over how the settlements began. The All India Union of Forest Working People wrote to the state in June asking it to halt the eviction of four villages in the Lutumari Longjap reserve. The group argued that the villages were established under the taungya system, a colonial-era arrangement in which forest communities grew food crops among commercially valuable trees while working for the forest department, and that residents should not be treated as ordinary encroachers.

The state government says the settlements stood on protected forest land. The Business Standard, citing Scroll and official figures, reported that about 19,000 families, most of them Muslim, have been evicted from government land during the BJP's 10 years in power in Assam.

Several questions remain unanswered. The government has not published a full list of the families displaced, a rehabilitation plan or details of compensation. It has not confirmed the number of mosques demolished, and no independent assessment of the damage has been released. It is also unclear where the families will go, or whether fresh legal challenges will delay further drives.

The operation has drawn attention in Bangladesh, where many people share a language and family ties with the affected communities. No public statement from the Bangladesh government on this week's drive was available at the time of publication.

What happens next will depend on the courts and on the state's appetite for more drives. The Gauhati High Court has intervened in earlier eviction cases, sometimes ordering status quo and sometimes allowing the state to proceed. Rights groups say they will keep challenging the notices. The immediate test is whether the families left in the Lutumari reserve receive shelter, documents and a clear legal answer before the next operation begins.