Rival political factions thwart Awami League rally in Bangladesh amid growing political unrest

Rival political groups opposed to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blocked her Awami League party’s attempt to hold a rally in Bangladesh’s capital on Sunday. The rally was intended to commemorate the death of a party activist on November 10, 1987, an event that sparked a mass protest against former military dictator H.M. Ershad.  He was eventually ousted from office, ending his nine-year rule in 1990.

The day is observed as “democracy day,” commemorating Bangladesh’s shift from a presidential system to a parliamentary democracy in 1991. Since then, Hasina and her political rival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, have dominated the country’s political landscape.

On Sunday, activists from Zia’s party, along with members of the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami party, filled the area where the rally was to take place, effectively preventing it from going ahead.

Others, including hundreds of student protesters, also announced that they wouldn’t allow Hasina’s supporters to stand on the streets and hold the rally. The protesters said that they think Hasina’s party was trying to make a comeback by holding a rally on the streets on Sunday. The protesters from the Anti-discrimination Student Movement, a group that led the mass uprising in July-August, aggressively hunted for supporters of Hasina.

Groups of people surrounded the Awami League party’s headquarters near the Noor Hossain Square in Dhaka where Hasina’s supporters were supposed to gather to hold the rally.

Security was tight in the area, but witnesses and local media said that the protesters attacked several supporters of Hasina when they attempted to reach there and chanted slogans in favor of the fallen leader.

The Awami League party said that many of their activists were detained by police as they came under attacks.

Tensions ran high throughout Sunday with the anti-Hasina protesters saying that they wouldn’t allow the party to hold any public rally under any circumstances.

The Awami League party posted a number of videos on Facebook on Sunday showing its supporters being manhandled. Its party headquarters had earlier been vandalized following Hasina’s fall on Aug. 5, and on Sunday it was empty and there were signs of destruction. Outside, control was in the hands of Hasina’s opponents.

The political chaos in the South Asian nation went on as Zia’s party was seeking quick reforms and a new election from an interim government headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus. The party believes it will be able to form the new government in the absence of Hasina’s party, while its other allies are also struggling.

The Yunus-led government said it would seek extradition of Hasina and her close associates as they face charges of crimes against humanity involving deaths of hundreds of protesters during the uprising.

With inputs from agencies.