Hundreds of opposition supporters clashed with police in Bangladesh’s capital and renewed demands for country's prime minister Sheikh Hasina to resign before elections next year. One officer was killed and more than 100 injured in Dhaka, police said, after the biggest protest yet against the prime minister was broken up. Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told news agency AFP that the officers were victims of "opposition attacks", saying, "The constable was hacked in the head by opposition activists."
The largest opposition group, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, called for a peaceful rally in Dhaka to pressure Sheikh Hasina to step aside for a caretaker government to carry out free and fair elections in January. Her administration rejected the demand saying that Bangladesh’s top court has ruled that the caretaker system is illegal.
As opposition activists protested, police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the crowd as they drove armoured vehicles down the road. Videos shared on social media showed the clashes between the police and the protestors. Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami breached police barricades to hold a separate anti-government rally while the BNP also announced a plan to enforce a daylong, nationwide shutdown to condemn the “police crackdown” on the opposition.
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{{/usCountry}}As opposition activists protested, police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the crowd as they drove armoured vehicles down the road. Videos shared on social media showed the clashes between the police and the protestors. Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami breached police barricades to hold a separate anti-government rally while the BNP also announced a plan to enforce a daylong, nationwide shutdown to condemn the “police crackdown” on the opposition.
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{{/usCountry}}The ruling Bangladesh Awami League is also holding another rally vowing to occupy every street in Dhaka to keep the opposition at bay as tensions in Dhaka and other major cities simmered. Police arrested at least 1,680 BNP supporters in four days in connection with protests.
“If the BNP comes and attacks us, we will not sit quietly,” Obaidul Quader, General Secretary of the Awami League, said at an event in Dhaka, adding, “If there is an attack on our peaceful rally, our workers will not sit back. There will be a counter-attack.”