DHAKA: Bangladesh’s main opposition leader was arrested for questioning on Sunday, as clashes raged for a second day between police and protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid ahead of upcoming elections.
Police also made a series of raids on the homes of senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders, party spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan said, adding that at least 3,000 party activists and supporters had been detained in the past week.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman said that BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had been arrested for interrogation, AFP news agency reported.
He said that Alamgir would be interrogated over Saturday’s violence in which a police officer and a protester were killed, and at least twenty-six police ambulances were torched or damaged.
Alamgir, 75, the BNP’s secretary-general, has led the party since BNP chairperson and two-time former prime minister Khaleda Zia was arrested and jailed, and her son went into exile in the UK.
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The resurgent opposition has been carrying out protests for months despite their ailing leader, Khaleda Zia, being effectively under house arrest after a conviction on corruption allegations.
Saturday’s protests by BNP and the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, were among the biggest demonstrations this year and marked a new phase in their campaigning, with elections due before the end of January.
Protests in Bangladesh
Over 100,000 supporters of the two major opposition parties rallied on Saturday to demand the Prime Minister step down to allow a free and fair election under a neutral government.
Protests descended into several hours of violent clashes in the capital city of Dhaka, and both the Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP called for a nationwide strike on Sunday to protest the violence.
Security on Sunday was tight in Dhaka, with thousands of members of security forces patrolling the streets.
But police in the northern district of Lalmonirhat said a young leader in the ruling party was killed and several others wounded during violent clashes between hundreds of opposition and ruling party supporters.
