DHAKA: Bangladesh police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse stone-pelting protesters at major roads in the capital Dhaka on Saturday in what was the latest of a series of protests to demand prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid’s resignation.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies have held a series of protests since last year, demanding Hasina step down and allow a caretaker government to oversee polls due next January.
Clashes erupted at several sites when police moved in to clear thousands of people who gathered in the morning to block traffic on key arteries around the city. “Some officers were injured,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruq Ahmed said. “We fired tear gas and rubber bullets,” he added.
At least four locations around the city saw clashes between police and protesters, Ahmed said further.
One protest site in an old neighbourhood, Dholaikhal, now a hub for automotive repair shops, witnessed protesters retaliate by throwing rocks at riot police and their vehicles.
According to police, six protesters with injuries had been admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman further said that senior BNP leaders Amanullah Aman and Goyeshwar Roy had been taken into police custody but had not been formally arrested.
Road links between the capital Dhaka and other parts of the country were almost cut with trucks and buses stuck in gridlock.
Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League has ruled the nation since 2009 and has been accused of human rights abuses and corruption.
BNP-led protests have become increasingly common since the start of 2023 with rallies this month drawing tens of thousands of people to the streets. Police arrested at least 500 opposition activists ahead of a rally outside the party’s headquarters in the capital this week.
Western governments have expressed their concern over the political situation in Bangladesh, where the ruling party dominates the legislature and runs it virtually as a rubber stamp.
The country’s security forces are accused of detaining tens of thousands of opposition activists, killing hundreds in extrajudicial encounters and also disappearing hundreds of leaders and supporters.
In 2021, Washington sanctioned the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) security force and seven of its senior officers in response to those alleged rights abuses.
The opposition BNP’s leader Khaleda Zia, a two-time premier and old opponent of Hasina’s, is effectively under house arrest after a conviction on graft charges.
