Policeman killed, 200 injured in violence in Bangladesh ahead of elections
A Bangladeshi police officer was killed and more than 200 people, including security personnel, were injured on Saturday when violence broke out during rallies called by ruling and opposition parties here. This increased tensions in the country in the run-up to the expected elections in January.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, organized a major rally here demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation to allow free and fair elections under a non-party interim government.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain said BNP activists hacked to death a police officer while 41 other police officers were injured in clashes in the capital. He added that 39 police officers were undergoing treatment at the Rajarbagh Central Police Hospital (CPH).
Doctors declared him (police officer) dead when he was brought here, Bacchu Mian, inspector at the police station of the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told reporters, as the ruling Awami League party and the main opposition BNP held simultaneous rallies in mentioned nearby areas.
The paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) was also called in as violence spread across central Dhaka, with protesters setting fire to ambulances and vehicles in CPH and a police booth and attempting attacks on several government buildings. Kakrail and adjoining areas also witnessed major violence.
Police responded with rubber bullets, tear gas canisters and sound grenades to break up the BNP’s large rally.
BNP leaders and activists attacked government installations and properties. Legal action will be taken, Harunur Rashid, head of the Detective Department of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told reporters.
Prime Minister Hasina’s ruling Awami League party also organized a peace rally mobilizing thousands of supporters at the South Gate of the Baitul Mokarram Nation Mosque, as BNP activists gathered around the party’s central office in Naya Paltan, both in the city center from Dhaka.
Police in riot gear with water cannons created buffer zones in the Purana Paltan area to prevent clashes between rival activists, who were armed with bamboo sticks and stones.
Doctors from the main state-owned DMCH in Dhaka told reporters that about 200 people have been taken to the facility so far, many with serious head injuries.
The violence, which broke out in the Kakrail area when BNP activists reportedly attacked a bus carrying members of the rival party, spread as soon as police fired tear gas at the opposition activists who were chanting anti-government slogans.
The BNP declared a nationwide general strike on Sunday in protest against police actions to thwart a peaceful mass gathering.
In response, Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader asked ruling party workers to organize peace rallies across the country.
Prime Minister Hasina, meanwhile, criticized the opposition for trying to derail her government’s development agenda.
Your intimidation does not deter the Awami League, she told a public meeting in the southeastern port city of Chattogram after the opening of the country’s first underwater tunnel in the Karnaphuli River.
Saturday’s violence came amid heightened tensions over planned general elections in early January 2024 in Bangladesh, where Hasina, daughter of the country’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has been in power for 15 years.
According to the BNP, no opinion poll among the ruling Awami League can be credible and fair. However, the ruling party, which hopes to return to power for a fourth consecutive term, has rejected the demand, saying the elections will be held under the supervision of Hasina’s government as specified in the constitution.
The opposition party has been leading protests for months to press their demands, even though their ailing leader, Khaleda Zia, a two-time prime minister, is under house arrest following a corruption conviction.
The BNP says it is making a last-ditch effort to oust Hasina as the election commission prepares to announce the country’s 12th national election.
On Thursday, Bangladesh’s Independent Election Commission said there was not yet a favorable environment for the planned elections in early January 2024.
“We want to organize the elections. As organizers, we would like to say that the favorable environment we expected has not yet been achieved, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Habibul Awal told reporters.
However, the head of the election commission said his office was preparing to hold the elections as planned.
When asked what action the commission would take if the entire national election process was flawed, Awal said: In such a scenario, I would have no option but to suspend the election process across the country.
The BNP is demanding the restoration of the election-time non-party caretaker government system, which saw four elections held between 1991 and 2008.
The December 2008 elections installed Hasina’s Awami League, while the subsequent 2014 and 2008 elections were held under the incumbent government, which scrapped the constitutional provision after taking office in January 2009.
Major Western countries, including the US, are calling for Bangladesh polls to be fair, credible and inclusive for the sake of democracy.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)