Dhaka: Bangladesh’s capital was on Saturday under virtual siege with overnight stoppage of transport services with the rest of the country as main opposition BNP is set to defy a government ban on their protest march tomorrow, escalating tensions afresh.
Paramilitary troops patrolled city streets while elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police kept a sharp vigil at Dhaka’s entry points amid the political face-off between the BNP-led opposition alliance along with fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and the ruling Awami League.
Transport operators said they stopped operating buses and ferries to and from Dhaka due to “security concerns” as advised by law enforcement agencies while pro-government transport associations called a two-day strike to protest vandalism during the past weeks of opposition protests. Thick fog also halted ferry services in major waterways and highways linking the capital with major cities making it tough for opposition activists to march towards Dhaka in response to BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s call. “Most buses are not operating on the long routes apart from a few operators loyal to the BNP,” the counter manager of a private bus service told a TV channel in Dhaka. Zia last night urged people to rally in Dhaka tomorrow defying the ban. But media reports said activists of BNP and Jamaat started moving towards the capital from on Friday evening well ahead of the programme fearing police interception.
The reports said many planned to reach Dhaka by tomorrow under cover of bridal parties as many wedding ceremonies are set to take place in the capital on the weekend. The opposition BNP-led alliance is demanding formation of a poll-time caretaker government with an “acceptable figure” as its ahead replacing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and want the shelving of the January 5 election. The TV channels said 100 activists of Jamaat were detained alone today as they were heading towards Dhaka in several buses from central Tangail district.
Meanwhile, police detectives have arrested at least seven BNP leaders including two lawmakers in the capital while sporadic incidents of violence have left two policemen dead so far and dozens wounded. In the latest violence, suspected opposition activists in a pre-dawn attack hurled several patrol bombs at the village home of Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad in western Chuadanga today. Police said no one was hurt in the attack as the house was vacant and an unexploded petrol bomb was recovered.
BNP says 30 central leaders of the party and its associated bodies were arrested in the past one month alone while the police manhunt forced most others to go into hiding. According to figures tallied by major newspapers nearly 470 people were killed in political violence in the past year while over 122 died in the past month since the election commission announced the schedule for the January 5 polls. Yesterday, a second policemen died within two days after suspected BNP and Jamaat activists hurled a bomb on a police van also injuring eight others in northwestern Rajshahi. The authorities have deployed army troops across Bangladesh “in aid of civil administration” to maintain peace and order ahead of the controversial January 5 elections, that are being boycotted by the opposition.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police earlier this week declared a bounty on arsonists and vandals saying 1 lakh Takas would be awarded to those who help in arrest of criminals trying to set fire or vandalise vehicles. But the statutory National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) yesterday said the incidents of violence across the county were not due to political issues “rather these are terrorist acts against the state and its people”. “This is not political. These acts of terrorism are against the innocent people, the nation and the state,” NHRC chairman Mizanur Rahman said. Former head of the past caretaker government and ex-chief justice Habibur Rahman accused the politicians of failure to protect the people while rights activists asked the government to take stern action against those responsible for the unrest. (PTI)
