Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has claimed that Bangladesh’s law and order situation has visibly improved over the past 180 days, six months, while acknowledging that more time is needed to consolidate the gains.

“The people of the country will assess whether they are satisfied with the law and order situation. However, from the government’s perspective, we can say with certainty that there has been a visible improvement in the situation over the past six months,” he told reporters on Monday.

The minister was speaking at a briefing at the Bangladesh Secretariat after a meeting of a committee formed to formulate recommendations on the report of the Bangladesh Judicial Service Pay Commission, 2025.

He said the government had undertaken a number of reforms during its first 180 days and that various initiatives by law enforcement agencies had been positively received.

“We have completed only six months. During this period, we have carried out many reform initiatives, and you have seen several commendable initiatives by the law enforcement agencies,” he said.

According to the minister, several public welfare programmes and other initiatives undertaken during the first 180 days were based on the roadmap announced by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.

He said the government had faced a series of global and domestic crises since taking office but had dealt with them “efficiently and successfully”.

Fuel crisis and energy security

Salahuddin said the government had taken measures to shield consumers and farmers from the impact of the global energy crisis triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Although fuel and gas prices rose sharply worldwide, the government did not immediately increase fuel prices in Bangladesh, he said.

He added that the government kept the fuel price unchanged for nearly a month during the Boro rice cultivation season to protect farmers before deciding on a moderate adjustment.

He claimed that fuel prices in the global market and neighbouring countries had risen by almost 100 per cent during the period.

Acknowledging that the longstanding gas and energy crisis inherited from the previous Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt said they condemned Israel’s rejection of the plan.

“Rejecting the Road Map constitutes an explicit refusal to proceed with the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan, and directly threatens to derail the extensive efforts exerted by US President Trump to bring an end to the war in Gaza and establish the conditions for lasting peace,” the statement said.

“They further stress that Israel bears direct and full responsibility for any consequences resulting from its continued rejection, obstruction, delay or non-compliance, including any resulting deterioration of the situation on the ground and disruption of ending the war in Gaza.”

Two weeks after Hamas publicly signed on to the latest phase of the deal, Jared Kushner, who is Mr Trump’s son-in-law and special envoy, flew to Egypt ahead of expected talks on Monday in Jerusalem.

Mr Kushner met with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye, as well as Nickolay Mladenov, the Gaza high representative in Mr Trump’s “Board of Peace” set up to implement the deal, Egypt’s government said.

Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya was also in Egypt, travelling late on Saturday to the Mediterranean city of El-Alamein in his first trip since taking over the Gaza-based Islamist movement last month.

A second Hamas source said the United States had sought clarifications from the group on several points, including “genuine, rather than merely symbolic, collection, consolidation and storage of weapons, as well as Hamas’s complete relinquishment of governance of Gaza.”

Mr Kushner also met with representatives from Hamas on Sunday evening, local time.

A senior Israeli official said Mr Kushner and Mr Mladenov were scheduled to meet on Monday with Mr Netanyahu, who on August 9 said Mr Trump’s latest road map for Gaza peace was “unacceptable.”

Talks came despite Israeli forces intensifying strikes within Gaza.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that its aircraft struck two Islamic Jihad and Hamas fighters in Khan Younis and Nuseirat. At least five Palestinians were injured in the strike, which hit a tent encampment, medics in the enclave said.

SM/CitizenTimes