Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Bangladesh holds its first election since the ouster of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Islamabad grapples with the aftermath of its deadliest terrorist attack since 2008, and uncertainties persist in the U.S.-India trade deal.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Bangladesh holds its first election since the ouster of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Islamabad grapples with the aftermath of its deadliest terrorist attack since 2008, and uncertainties persist in the U.S.-India trade deal.

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On Thursday, Bangladeshis will vote in one of their most consequential elections in years and the first since the 2024 uprising that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who ruled with an iron fist for 15 years. Hasina oversaw elections in 2014, 2018, and 2024 that were widely criticized by independent election observers as not free or fair.

Despite concerns about election-related violence, the campaign period was relatively peaceful, and the public mood in Bangladesh appears positive. In an International Republican Institute survey conducted last September and October, 66 percent of respondents said they were very likely to vote, and 80 percent said they were optimistic that the elections would be free and fair.

Still, the election unfolds amid some controversy. The interim government banned Hasina’s Awami League from participating in political activities. That means one of the country’s largest parties will be excluded from the vote. The Awami League’s absence is a large part of why the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is the heavy favorite.

The BNP is the country’s other major dynastic party, which maintains a large base and vast financial resources despite being suppressed by the Awami League for years. The recent return of Tarique Rahman, the BNP’s chair and presumptive candidate for prime minister, from exile in London has energized the party. Rahman’s mother, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, died on Dec. 30, 2025.

There is another possibility........

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