DHAKA: Bangladesh’s main opposition leader was detained on Sunday, as clashes raged for a second day between police and protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, ahead of the upcoming elections.

Police also made a series of raids on the homes of senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders, party spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan said, adding that nearly 3,000 party activists and supporters had been detained in the past week.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman said BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had been “detained for interrogation”.

The police commissioner said Alamgir would be questioned over Saturday’s violence in which a police officer and a protester were killed, and at least 26 police ambulances were torched or damaged.

Street clashes continue as police claim BNP secretary general detained for ‘interrogation’

Alamgir, 75, the BNP’s secretary-general, has led the party since BNP chairwoman and two-time former premier Khaleda Zia was arrested and jailed, and her son went into exile in Britain.

The resurgent opposition has been mounting protests for months, despite their ailing leader Zia being effectively under house arrest after a conviction on corruption charges.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said cases were being filed over the violence, while Bangladeshis fretted about the political turmoil and spiralling cost of living.

Saturday’s protests by BNP and the largest Islamic party, Jamaat-i-Islami, were among the biggest this year, and marked a new phase in their campaigning with a general election due before the end of January.

Rubber bullets, tear gas

More than 100,000 supporters of the two major opposition parties rallied on Saturday to demand PM Hasina step down to allow a free and fair vote under a neutral government.

Protests descended into several hours of violent clashes in central Dhaka, and both the BNP and Jamaat-i-Islami called for a nationwide strike on Sunday to protest the violence.

Security on Sunday was tight in the capital with thousands of members of security forces patrolling the streets.

But police in the northern district of Lalmonirhat said a youth leader in the ruling party was killed and several others injured during violent clashes between hundreds of opposition and ruling party supporters.

“He was rushed to a hospital where he died,” local police chief Ershadul Alam told AFP.

Police accused protesters of setting fire to a bus in Dhaka in the early hours of Sunday morning, after a blaze in which one person was killed and another badly burned.

Opposition activists and police clashed in several rural districts as well as the industrial city of Narayanganj, police said.

Officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the protesters after they burned tyres on a road and tried to vandalise vehicles, district police chief Golan Mostofa Russell told AFP.

One officer was injured, police said, while local media reported two BNP protesters were also injured.

Violence has sparked international concern, with the United States on Saturday calling for “calm and restraint on all sides”.

The European Union on Sunday said it was “vital that a peaceful way forward for participatory and peaceful elections is found”, it posted on X.

Hasina has been in power for 15 years and overseen rapid economic growth. Bangladesh has overtaken neighbouring India in GDP per capita, but its inflation has risen and Hasina’s government is accused of corruption and human rights abuses.

Western governments have expressed concern over the political climate in Bangladesh, where Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League dominates the legislature.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2023