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Protests against Hasina arrest

Haroon Habib

DHAKA: The arrest of former Bangladesh Prime Minister and Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina has sparked widespread protests with agitated activists of the party and its front organisations staging angry demonstrations across the country.

Police fired rubber bullets, used shotguns and arrested many protesters, injuring many in the process. Reports suggest, law enforcers baton charged protesters as they came out of their houses defying the prohibitory orders prevailing under the state of emergency. Awami League activists went berserk at different places and damaged vehicles.

The first protest was reported on the court premises in Dhaka on Monday when party supporters, including women, stopped the convoy carrying Ms. Hasina to a sub-jail.

They threw stones at security forces, who fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. At least 10 persons were injured in the clashes and protests soon spread to several parts of Dhaka and other towns.

Some 151 members of the Supreme Court Bar Association have demanded the immediate release of Ms. Hasina and withdrawal of all “false cases” against her. Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the party, which took out processions on the Dhaka University campus, called a three-day strike in all educational institutions.

The call received mixed response on the first day on Tuesday. The youth front of the party, Juba League, has called for a nation-wide protest. Protests were also reported from the industrial areas of Tongi and Khalispur. Defying prohibitory orders, the student and youth front activists of the Awami League took out processions in Khulan, Mymensingh, Kishoregonj, Gopalgonj, Barisal and many other places. Acting party president Zillur Rahman, who presided over a meeting on Tuesday, demanded “immediate and unconditional release” of Ms. Hasina, and threatened to launch an agitation.

The dramatic dawn arrest of Ms. Hasina, a popular democratic leader who spoke out against some Government actions, invited protests from poets, writers and other intellectuals from various walks of life. The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), a New Delhi-based organisation, condemned the arrest and termed it “a conspiracy to keep her out of politics”.

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