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The rally in Dhaka by the Awami League was to commemorate the death of a party activist on November 10, 1987, which had sparked a mass protest against former military dictator HM Ershad
Policemen try to stop BNP activists marching near ousted PM Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party office in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on November 10. (Image: AP)
Rival political groups of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday thwarted a plan by her Awami League party to hold a rally in Bangladesh’s capital, seen as a potential first effort to make a comeback on the streets since she fled the country in August amid a mass uprising.
The rally in Dhaka by Hasina’s party was to commemorate the death of a party activist on November 10, 1987, which had sparked a mass protest against former military dictator HM Ershad. He was eventually ousted from office, ending his nine-year rule in 1990.
The day is commemorated as ‘Democracy Day’. In 1991, Bangladesh switched to a parliamentary democracy from a presidential form of government, and since then Hasina and her rival, former PM Khaleda Zia, became the most powerful political figures in the country.
On Sunday, activists of the party headed by Zia, Hasina’s main rival, and also members of the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami party took to the streets of Dhaka, filling up much of the area where the rally was scheduled to take place.
Others, including hundreds of student protesters, also announced that they will not allow Hasina’s supporters to stand on the streets and hold the rally. The protesters said that they think Hasina’s party was trying to make a comeback by holding a rally on the streets on Sunday.
The protesters from the ‘Anti-discrimination Student Movement’, a group that led the mass uprising in July-August, aggressively hunted for supporters of Hasina. Groups of people surrounded the Awami League party’s headquarters near the Noor Hossain Square in Dhaka where Hasina’s supporters were supposed to gather to hold the rally.
Security was tight in the area, but witnesses and local media said the protesters attacked several supporters of Hasina when they attempted to reach there and chanted slogans in favor of the fallen leader. The Awami League said many of their activists were detained by police as they came under attacks.
Tensions ran high throughout Sunday with the anti-Hasina protesters saying they will not allow the party to hold any public rally under any circumstances. The Awami League party posted a number of videos on Facebook showing its supporters being manhandled.
Its party headquarters had earlier been vandalised following Hasina’s fall on August 5 and, on Sunday, it was empty and there were signs of destruction. Outside, control was in the hands of Hasina’s opponents.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)
- Location :
Dhaka, Bangladesh