In Bangladesh, a member of the police killed during an opposition demonstration

Violent clashes with the police broke out on Saturday October 28 in Bangladesh during a mass demonstration by opponents of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The clashes caused the death of a police officer and left many injured. In the midst of a political crisis in the country, more than 100,000 opponents, according to the police, took part in banned rallies in the capital Dhaka to demand the resignation of Sheikh Hasina and make way for a neutral government to oversee the next elections.

Police used tear gas and fired rubber bullets to disperse the rallies organized by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e- Islami. The demonstrators responded by throwing stones and bricks in several streets of the capital. A police officer was killed, “hit on the head by opposition activists” and more than a hundred others were injured, said the Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesperson.

National strike on Sunday

At least 20 people were injured by rubber bullets and taken to the country’s main hospital, the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, a police inspector told AFP. This Saturday marks a new stage in the protests before the general elections scheduled for the end of January. The BNP has also called for a national strike on Sunday to protest against the violence of the police.

Sheikh Hasina, daughter of the country’s first president, has been in power for fifteen years and has seen her country experience rapid economic growth that has allowed it to overtake neighboring India in terms of gross domestic product per capita. But his government is accused of corruption and human rights violations.

For months, the opposition, in full revival, has been organizing demonstrations to assert its demands, although the ailing leader of the BNP, Khaleda Zia, twice Prime Minister and old enemy of the head of government, is under house arrest after having been convicted of corruption.