Bangladesh’s opposition parties hold simultaneous demonstrations in Dhaka

DHAKA, Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s main opposition political party and some of its allies on Friday held simultaneous demonstrations in the capital Dhaka from different venues, to press home the 10-point demands, including the formation of an election-time neutral government and stepping down of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The main opposition, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), held the largest demonstrations at Dhaka’s central Naya Paltan area in front of the party’s headquarters.

Tens of thousands of activists and leaders of BNP took part in the demonstrations and a grand rally carrying festoons, banners, and the party’s electoral symbol of paddy sheaf.

Claiming that over 100,000 activists and leaders took part in Friday’s demonstrations, BNP leaders said Hasina must hand over power to a neutral caretaker government before the next national elections are held in December 2023 or January 2024.

“We want a democratic system in Bangladesh and a new government that would take power through a free, fair, and participatory election,” Afroza Abbas, BNP leader and wife of the party’s detained central leader Mirza Abbas, told Anadolu Agency.

She added that people have rejected this “illegal” Awami League government that has come to power through vote rigging and ballot stuffing.

Underlining former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia as the protector of democracy, she called on the government to immediately release Zia and other BNP leaders.

The demonstrators also chanted slogans against the price hike of daily commodities and human rights violations.

The party also declared at its grand rally to hold a four-hour-long sit-in protest on Jan. 11 in all the divisional headquarters, including Dhaka.

Police, Jamaat clashes

Meanwhile, the activists of Bangladesh’s leading Islamic political party and the main ally of BNP, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and police engaged in clashes in Dhaka’s Malibagh area.

According to eyewitnesses, thousands of workers and leaders of Jamaat brought out a procession in support of the BNP’s 10-point movement that the party declared from a big rally on Dec. 10.

In a statement, Jamaat claimed that police intentionally attacked the peaceful rally of Jamaat and arrested nearly 100 of their workers.

Alongside the 10-point demands, Jamaat also called on the government to immediately release its central leader (Ameer) Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, who was arrested for his alleged connectivity with an Islamic extremist group that the party has denied.

Police, however, accused Jamaat workers of attacking the police during the demonstrations.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Ramna zone deputy commissioner Md Shahidullah told the local New Age daily that many policemen were injured in Jamaat activists’ attack at Malibagh.

Meanwhile, Ganatatnra Mancha, an alliance of seven political parties, on Friday held a rally in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka.

The alliance announced that it will hold a three-hour mass sit-in program in divisional cities on Jan. 11, 2023 to press home its 14-point demands that also include stepping down of Hasina and holding the national elections under a neutral government system.

Gov't slams opposition movement

Meanwhile, the ruling Awami League party criticized the opposition parties’ movement over the restoration of the caretaker government claiming the system was unconstitutional.

At a rally at the party’s central office in Dhaka on Friday, Awami League general secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaisul Quader called on their party workers to stay alert across the country against the opposition movement.

Repeating that no caretaker government would be restored, Quader added that in January 2024, the national elections would be held under the Awami League government.