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DHAKA, Dec. 7 (PTI) At least one person was killed and several were injured when police clashed with angry militants from Bangladesh’s main opposition party, the BNP, on Wednesday amid speculation that the party planned a grand event in Dhaka on Saturday. Political showing off during rallies.
“A 30-year-old man has died,” a police officer said.
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Staff at the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) told reporters they were treating several wounded opposition activists at the hospital.
Inspector Bachchu Mia also admitted that the body of the deceased could be that of a Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) activist with multiple bullet wounds.
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Witnesses at the scene of the violence said police used rubber bullets to disperse opposition supporters, who retaliated with crude bombs and rocks.
The violence came amid tensions in Bangladesh over former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s planned rally on Saturday, as they bolster opposition to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Part of the Awami League movement.
Police said they were hit by stones while clearing a road for traffic along the BNP’s Naya Paltan headquarters.
“We asked the BNP men several times to get off the road, but they defied and became violent, forcing the police to take action,” Dhaka City Police Assistant Commissioner Golam Ruhani told the media.
Television footage showed several BNP leaders and activists detained, including the party’s senior joint secretary general, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
The clashes lasted several hours, with a SWAT team and several platoons of riot police surrounding the BNP office and placing water cannons.
The BNP claimed that when the activists gathered at the party office, police raided their peaceful rally in the afternoon. It claimed at least two militants were killed in the police operation.
“It was a planned attack against BNP leaders and militants. They attacked us on the orders of senior government leaders,” Rizvi told reporters before his arrest.
Ahead of the Dhaka rally, the BNP held several largely peaceful public rallies across Bangladesh, but claimed the government was trying to disrupt supporters by manipulating traffic owners to call regional transport strikes to prevent supporters from attending the rallies.
But the Awami League has denied the allegation, saying the BNP may have spooked transport owners, driving them off the road.
The BNP boycotted the past two general elections, in 2014 and 2018, arguing that any election that brought the current government to power would be unfair or credible.
Political analysts say BNP Paribas has plenty of support, but the party is in tatters and its chairperson spent months behind bars in 2017 after she was convicted on two graft charges and sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2017.
However, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, three-time Prime Minister Zia has been allowed to stay at her home in Dhaka and banned from any political activities under a special government rule.
The BNP singled out Zia’s eldest foreign son, Tarique Rahman, who is also an offender on multiple criminal and corruption charges and remains in London.
Several Bangladeshi courts declared him a fugitive after failing to appear in person to face charges including murder.
The Jatiya party, founded by the late former president HM Ershad, is now the official opposition party in Bangladesh’s parliament and is led by his younger brother GM Quader, while Ershad’s wife Raushan Ershad is the parliamentary opposition leader.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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