DHAKA: Several people were wounded in a clash between activists of a major Bangladeshi opposition political party and police during a gathering of solidarity with the relatives of “missing people” in Habiganj district on Sunday.
According to local media, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had organized a march across the South Asian country on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, inviting relatives of those who have gone “missing” in recently, whom the party said were taken into custody by Bangladesh’s government agencies.
The police assaulted the party leaders and activists when they formed a chain of human hands to express solidarity with the relatives of “missing people,” the party said in a statement posted on social media.
Opposition Workers, Police Clash in Bangladesh, Several Wounded
As many as fifty party workers were wounded, with several receiving bullet wounds, the BNP claimed, saying that two journalists were also wounded in the police attack. However, police said that at least ten police officers were wounded in the attack by BNP activists.
Later, at the same sort of protest demonstration in Dhaka, party leader Selima Rahman said that more than 20,000 BNP leaders and workers had been apprehended over the last month.
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Families of the missing people demanded the return of their loved ones who were taken into custody by security forces in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the BNP also announced a two-day countrywide protest beginning Tuesday, asking for apolitical caretaker government to conduct the upcoming elections on January 7.
