Bangladesh police says officials were 'forced to open fire' during protests, launch strike

As if things weren’t tumultuous enough in Bangladesh with Sheikh Hasina’s sudden exit, the country’s key police association has now launched a strike amid fears about their safety.

“Until the security of every member of the police is secured, we are declaring a strike,” the Bangladesh Police Service Association (BPSA) said in a statement.

“We beg an apology for what the police force has done to the innocent students,” it added.

It argued its officers had been “forced to open fire”, and that they had been cast as the “villain”.

The group said that more than 450 police stations were attacked on Monday, the day Hasina fled Dhaka.

According to BBC Bangla, there were no traffic police present in the capital city of Dhaka on Tuesday with many student protesters guiding the movement of vehicles.

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Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Monday afternoon on state television that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had resigned and the military would form an interim government.

Hasina, 76, had been in power since 2009 but was accused of rigging elections in January and then watched millions of people take to the streets over the past month demanding she quit.

Hundreds of people died as security forces sought to quell the unrest, but the protests grew and Hasina finally fled Bangladesh aboard a helicopter on Monday as the military turned against her.

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But the police had largely remained loyal and said they had faced revenge attacks by protesters after more than a month of violence in which at least 413 people were killed, including several policemen.

With inputs from AFP