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Violent clashes in Bangladeshi capital over polls
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Ruling party supporters and their opponents threw stones at each other yesterday on the second day of sporadic violence in the Bangladeshi capital, after a heavy police presence foiled an opposition plan for a rally to pressure the government to scrap next month’s election.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and its allies had planned a mass gathering in Dhaka on Sunday, but police barred Zia from leaving her home while cordoning off the venue in front of the party’s headquarters.
Zia’s home remained blocked yesterday. She had been scheduled to address Sunday’s rally to step up the pressure on her archrival, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to cancel the January 5 elections and hand over power to a caretaker government to oversee the vote.
Women members of the ruling Awami League party clashed with a group of lawyers tied to Zia’s party on the Supreme Court premises. They threw stones at each other but no injuries were immediately reported.
No major violence was reported elsewhere in the country, despite a call from the main opposition party to block roads, railways and waterways.
Seeking to stave off violence, police in Dhaka banned public New Year’s Eve celebrations and asked residents to return home by 8pm tomorrow. Benazir Ahmed, commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said gatherings would not be allowed.
Hasina said yesterday she had no problem with opposition protests but that killings and violence must stop.
She said earlier she would go ahead with the election despite the opposition boycott to avoid a constitutional crisis. The Election Commission is supporting the polls, citing the constitution that says elections must be held 90 days before the government’s 5-year term expires, or by January 24.
The European Union, the US and the British Commonwealth said they would not send observers for the election. The government has pledged that the vote would be credible.
At least one person, a student, was killed in clashes on Sunday between security forces and opposition activists, police said. Authorities have detained more than 1,550 people in a crackdown since last week.
More than 150 people have died in political violence since October. The conflict pits an opposition alliance led by Zia’s party against Hasina, who accuses Zia of protecting people being tried or convicted of war crimes involving the nation’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
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