More than 160 people were arrested and curfew was increased on Friday at Gopalganj, the hometown of Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, while the death toll in Wednesday’s violence increased to five.
According to the police, 164 people have been arrested and the search for hundreds of other people is going on. Even the Navy and Coast Guard personnel are patrolling rivers and canals to catch the suspects involved in the violence in Gopalganj, about 160 km south-west of Dhaka.
Four people were killed in clashes during the National Citizen Party (NCP) rally. The rally turned into a battlefield in a way, as hundreds of supporters of Rahman’s daughter and disproportionate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina clashed with the police before the employed march of the student -led party.
The editor of a local newspaper said on the condition of anonymity, “The local hospital referred the seriously injured Ramadan Muni to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where he died today.”
Police have confirmed that the arrested people and several unidentified people are accused of allegedly attacking police vehicles, setting fire to them and physically attacking several officers.
The Bangladeshi Army said in a statement that it used force in self -defense after the attack of “a group of miscreants” during the clashes in Gopalganj on Wednesday. The statement of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) stated that a group of people committed “organized violence” over a public meeting organized under a month-long program of a political party in Gopalganj Sadar.
The statement said, “Many policemen and journalists were injured in the initial wave of violence, while government vehicles and public establishments were vandalized and set on fire.”
ISPR said, “As soon as the situation deteriorated rapidly, the Bangladesh Army and the local police intervened and managed to bring the situation under control.”
Meanwhile, the police said that the curfew implemented since Wednesday evening was for 22 hours, which has been extended till 6 am on Saturday.
People who contacted on the phone said that there is an atmosphere of fear among the residents by the officials calling the army and riot police to monitor the entire district, additional soldiers of the paramilitary border guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Coast Guard.
A junior government official said, “On the second day of the curfew implemented by the security forces on Wednesday, people are forced to stay inside the houses and remained closed. It was relaxed for a while so that Muslims could offer prayers on Friday (Jumma).”
He said that the army used the megaphone, asking people to stay inside their homes, while they were patrolling the streets of Gopalganj district headquarters and sub-district headquarters with armored vehicles (APCs).
The Daily Star Newspaper quoted the lowest level of the local government, at least four presidents of the union councils, saying that several residents escaped leaving the area after the law enforcement agencies initiated action.
Earlier on Thursday, military troops, paramilitary forces and riot police patrolled the main roads in Gopalganj to ensure curfew.
The NCP students are a branch of the Against Description (SAD) group, leading the violent protests that overthrow Hasina’s rule on August 5, 2024. Three days later, Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of the interim government.
On Wednesday, despite all the obstacles, NCP managed to pursue the rally with a broken sound system on the damaged platform headed by its convenor Nahid Islam in Gopalganj, which is the stronghold of Hasina’s Awami League.
Yunus’s office had earlier issued a strict statement calling the NCP’s attempt to stop the rally “absolutely unforgivable” and promised that those responsible for this would be held accountable.
The government said, “It should be made clear that there is no place in our country for violence. Justice will be done and will happen.”
At the same time, the government also criticized efforts to prevent young citizens from celebrating their movement peacefully and described it as a “shameful violation” of their fundamental rights. Let us know that 77 -year -old Hasina has been living in India since August 5 last year.
