Pakistan, Sudan, Bangladesh

Today's three stories you should know

Pakistan

Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan has lost 85 percent of the sight in his right eye, his lawyers told the Supreme Court, accusing prison authorities of failing to take action. Lawyer Salman Safdar, who visited the 73-year-old this week, said Khan’s eyesight began to deteriorate three to four months ago but nothing was done besides giving him eye drops. The cricketer-turned-politician has been in prison since August 2023, serving a 14-year sentence for corruption, an accusation Khan and rights groups say was cooked up to remove him from politics. The court ordered that Khan be permitted to see his personal physician by February 16, and be allowed to telephone his sons.

More from Reuters here.

Sudan

More than 6,000 people were killed in three days after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group captured the city of El-Fasher in Sudan, a new U.N. report has said. The United Arab Emirates-backed RSF, which has been at war with Sudan’s military-led government for almost three years, took control of El-Fasher after a brutal 18-month siege, during which it blocked the entry of food, medicine and vital supplies. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in the report that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe the RSF and allied groups had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture and using starvation as a weapon of war. “It was like a scene out of a horror movie,” one witness told the U.N.

More from the U.N. here.

Bangladesh

Tarique Rahman, who spent 17 years in self-imposed exile, is set to become the new prime minister of Bangladesh after his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won a landslide in the first parliamentary elections since a street uprising in 2024. Rahman, son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and assassinated former President Ziaur Rahman, faces a major challenge in revitalizing an economy reeling from 18 months of uncertainty, and uniting a fractious political class. The center-right BNP and its allies secured at least 212 out of 299 seats, according to the electoral commission, with the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami and its allies in second with 77 seats. Deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, which governed from 2009 until 2024, was banned from taking part.

More from the Dhaka Tribune here.