Reuters AlertNet Lite - FACTBOX-Key facts and figures about Bangladesh

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FACTBOX-Key facts and figures about Bangladesh

11 Jan 2007 14:19:53 GMT
Source: Reuters

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Bangladesh has declared a state of emergency and imposed night-time curfew after weeks of violence in the run-up to elections boycotted by major parties.

Here are some key facts.

POPULATION: 140 million - 87 percent Muslim, 11 percent Hindu, 0.6 percent Buddhist, 0.3 percent Christian and 1.1 percent ethnic minorities. Bengali is the state language.

AREA: 55,598 square miles (143,998 sq km) of generally flat and fertile land bounded by India to the west and north, India and Myanmar to the east and the Bay of Bengal to the south.

CAPITAL: Dhaka. Population 11 million.

ARMED FORCES: Bangladesh's land forces, including the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles, number over 200,000. Defence expenditure in 2005/06 was about $730 million.

ECONOMY: Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest nations, with half its population living on less than one dollar a day.

Gross domestic product in 2005/06 (July-June) was $65 billion and per capita income $482. The agriculture sector accounts for 21 percent of GDP and employs over 60 percent of the workforce.

The economy has grown by an average 6 percent over the past three years.

TIMELINE OF RECENT HISTORY:

Aug. 1947 - Part of British India until the end of colonial rule in 1947, the land now known as Bangladesh emerges as East Pakistan.

Dec. 1971 - Bangladesh wins independence after a nine-month guerrilla war by Bengali nationalists.

Aug. 1975 - Independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who became Bangladesh's first president and later prime minister, is killed with most of his family in a coup.

Nov. - Major-General Ziaur Rahman takes power and later wins presidential elections. He is killed in an abortive coup in 1981.

March 1982 - Army chief Lieutenant-General Hossain Mohammad Ershad seizes power.

Dec. 1990 - Ershad is toppled in a popular uprising led by Begum Khaleda Zia, the widow of slain president Zia, and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Mujib.

Feb. 1991 - Khaleda wins elections and forms a government.

April 1991 - More than 138,000 people are killed in a cyclonic tidal wave.

June 1996 - Hasina wins elections, becomes prime minister.

Oct. 2001 - Khaleda returns to power in an election.

Oct. 2006 - President Iajuddin Ahmed takes over as head of caretaker administration after Khaleda's term expires; dozens die in weeks of political violence.

Jan. 2007 - Hasina says her Awami League-led alliance will boycott elections, accusing Iajuddin of favouring Khaleda. The president declares a state of emergency and imposes night curfew. Sources: Reuters; International Monetary Fund (www.imf.org)

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Last updated:Thu Jan 11 14:20:46 2007