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DHAKA: Bangladeshi security forces on Wednesday clashed with supporters of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leaving at least four people dead and scores injured, a hospital official and local media said.
The violence erupted in the morning and spread as a new political party formed by students who led the uprising against Hasina in August last year announced a march toward southwestern Gopalganj district, Hasina’s ancestral home, and her Awami League party’s stronghold.
Authorities later imposed an overnight curfew in the district.
Since Hasina’s ouster 11 months ago, Bangladesh has been marked by chaos and unchecked mob violence. Wednesday’s attack underscores the deep divisions in the country as its interim government keeps failing to bring the deteriorating security situation under control.
A chaotic situation
TV footage showed pro-Hasina activists armed attacking police with sticks and setting vehicles on fire as a convoy of about 20 vehicles carrying the leaders of the students’ National Citizen Party arrived as part of commemorations of the uprising.
Party leaders took shelter in the office of the local police chief. Footage showed top leaders were being escorted by soldiers to an armored vehicle for safety. They later left for a neighboring district with security escorts.
Jibitesh Biswas, a senior official of a state-run hospital, told reporters that the bodies of at least three people had been brought in. The country’s leading English-language Daily Star reported that four people died.
The interim government said Wednesday the attackers on the students would not go “unpunished” and in a statement issued on behalf of interim leader Muhammad Yunus, described the violence in Gopalganj as “utterly indefensible.”
Hasina’s Awami League party, which authorities banned in May, issued several statements on X condemning the violence and blaming the interim government for the deaths and injuries.
“We urge the world to take note of this blatant use of security apparatus,” one Awami statement said, adding that it had used mob violence against “dissenters.”
Student leader Nahid Islam gave the authorities a 24-hour ultimatum to arrest those responsible for the Gopalganj violence and floated the prospect of another march in the neighboring district of Faridpur on Thursday.
The right wing Jamaat-e-Islami party condemned the attacks on the student-led party and announced a nationwide protest in all districts and main cities for Thursday.
A nation in turmoil
Critics of the interim government warn of a widening polarization that has reduced hopes for national reconciliation even as Yunus’ administration pledges to bring order in the post-Hasina era. They say if the situation does not improve, a peaceful transition to democracy would be jeopardized.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yunus took over the country three days after Hasina was toppled and fled to India, pledging to restore order. He has promised a new election would be held in April next year.
Hasina now faces charges of crimes against humanity while the government seeks her extradition from India, which has not responded to Bangladesh’s request.
Gopalganj is a politically sensitive district because Hasina father’s mausoleum is located there. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence leader, was buried there after he was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975.
The National Citizen Party launched its “July March to Rebuild the Nation” at the start of the month, saying they would take place across all districts as part of its drive to position itself as a new force in Bangladeshi politics.
Bangladesh’s political past has been largely dominated by two dynastic parties — Hasina’s Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, headed by her rival and former prime minister Khaleda Zia. The BNP, which is hopeful of coming to power in the absence of Hasina’s party, was mostly silent about Wednesday’s violence.