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On Saturday, tens of thousands of supporters of Bangladesh’s largest opposition party came on Dhaka to protest Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government and call for fresh elections.
The audience at the Golapbagh sports area, where the event was taking place, erupted into the streets, chanting, “Sheikh Hasina is a vote thief.”
After security forces invaded the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) offices on Tuesday, killing at least one person and injuring dozens more, tensions were high in the capital.
Two of the party’s top leaders were added to the 2,000 or so activists and sympathisers who the party claimed had been held since November 30 in an effort to thwart the march. They were all arrested on Friday on suspicion of instigating the violence.
One of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, Bangladesh, has a political atmosphere that has alarmed Western nations as well as the United Nations.
Long associated with the US, Bangladesh has recently pursued closer ties with China, with Beijing funding some of Prime Minister Hasina’s multi-billion dollar infrastructure initiatives.
Hasina has categorically rejected calls from the opposition to quit and organise elections under a caretaker government, which have been made in protests around the nation.
By mid-morning on Saturday, according to a BNP spokesman, 200,000 people had registered to attend the rally.
“Our main demand is Sheikh Hasina resign and parliament is dissolved and let a neutral caretaker government step in to hold a free and fair election,” spokesman Zahiruddin Swapan told AFP.
Faruq Ahmed, a spokesman for the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, disputed the statistics, claiming that the location could not accommodate more than 30,000 people.
Although there had not yet been any violence, he noted that SWAT teams, counterterrorism units, and canine squads were on alert.
On entry points to the city, police erected up checkpoints, and the huge metropolis of about 20 million people was heavily guarded.
The normally clogged roadways of Dhaka saw only a few cycle rickshaws and cars, and BNP officials accused the government of instigating an unofficial transit strike in an effort to keep people from attending the demonstration.
According to local media reports, BNP campaigners were attacked by members of the ruling party on Friday.