Dhaka: Bangladesh on Monday enforced a security lockdown on the capital Dhaka with hundreds of troops patrolling the streets ahead of an opposition rally calling for the government to step down and hold elections.
Activists of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami ally gathered in huge number in front of the BNP’s central office at Naya Paltan area as police overnight granted the permission for the “mass rally” on some routine conditions.
“We are observing our programme peacefully and the leader and activists are started coming at the gathering,” BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told reporters at the scene where party chief Khaleda Zia was expected to arrive in next few hours.
BNP earlier announced to stage the rally mobilizing activists from different parts of the country but the plan was largely marred as the transport operators decided to stay off the road while most Dhaka hotels kept shut their doors for guests for “security reasons”.
BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged at least 3,000 people had been detained nationwide over the last four days as the government tried to refrain them from joining the mass protest demanding restoration of interim caretaker government system for election oversight.
Most schools and shops were closed and roads in the capital appeared deserted as tensions mounted ahead of the rally which has been planned for months.
“We have allowed the activists to gather in front of BNP office carrying banners and chanting slogans… no tension has been witnessed so far,” a police spokesman said.
The law enforcement agencies are keeping an extra eye while helicopters would also hover over the capital’s skyline as part of security steps, the policeman said.
Television footages showed the ruling Awami League activists equipped with bamboo sticks laid a siege at different entry points of the capital to prevent opposition workers to enter into the city.
BNP and its ally Jamaat-e–Islami blasted the government for “initiatives to frustrate” their planned “democratic programme” but Home Minister Sahara Khatun rejected the allegation saying the law enforcement agencies were asked to protect peoples’ safety fearing sabotage.
“The security vigil ahead of the opposition planned grand rally in the capital was aimed at averting possible sabotage… there is no scope for the government to take lightly the possibility,” she told reporters when asked for comments about the opposition allegations.
The minister, however, said transport and hotel owners took the decision to suspend their services for security reasons.
“Not the government, but the people are in panic over the rally and for that reason the law-enforcement agencies have been asked to take necessary measures to ward off anarchy in the name of the programme,” she said. (PTI)
