Interim leader Yunus says Awami League members committed ‘heinous act’ in attempt to disrupt rally of student-led NCP.Bangladeshi security forces clashed with supporters of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leaving at least three people dead and many injured.
Violence broke out Wednesday in the southern town of Gopalganj when members of Hasina’s Awami League tried to disrupt a rally by the National Citizens Party (NCP), which is made up of students who spearheaded the unrest that toppled the leader last year.
TV footage showed pro-Hasina activists armed with sticks attacking police and setting vehicles on fire as NCP leaders arrived at the new party’s “March to Rebuild the Nation” programme commemorating the uprising.
Monoj Baral, a nurse at the Gopalganj District Hospital, told the news agency AFP that three people were killed. Local media, including the English-language Daily Star, said that four had died.
One of the dead was identified by Baral as Ramjan Sikdar. The other two were taken away from the hospital by their families, said Baral.
Authorities imposed an overnight curfew in the district.
Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who replaced Hasina three days after her overthrow last year, said that the attempt by the former leader’s supporters to foil the NCP rally was “a shameful violation of their fundamental rights”.
“This heinous act … will not go unpunished,” said a statement from the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s office.
Hasnat Abdullah, an NCP coordinator, said rally attendees took refuge at a police station after being attacked. “We don’t feel safe at all. They threatened to burn us alive,” he told AFP. Advertisement
New political force
Bangladesh has been in political turmoil …
