Thousands of protestors in Bangladesh rally against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

Asia-Pacific, News December 13, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Thousands of angry protestors continue to arrive in the capital city of Dhaka from throughout the country as the opposition party in Bangladesh mobilized huge rallies. The protestors demanded the resignation of the sitting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina due to economic mismanagement.

The mass protest was organized by the country’s opposition party, Bangladesh National Party (BNP), which called for a nationwide protest against the government on December 9, 2022. Thousands upon thousands of protestors answered the opposition’s call and took to the roads in the capital city of Dhaka.

BNP’s top leadership demanded the withdrawal of cases against party chief Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman. The leader of the opposition party was charged and convicted in what the party says are politically motivated cases.

Hasina and her party have been in power in Bangladesh since 2009. She has been accused of rigging two national elections to prolong her stay in power. The opposition parties raised concerns about her heavy-handed political and economic approach. She has also attracted severe criticism from human rights activists and independent observers due to hard-liner political and economic policies.

The BNP claims that more than 180,000 legal cases have been filed against four million of its members in the last decade. At the same time, at least 600 party members have been abducted, and about 3,000 were victims of extrajudicial killings at the hands of authorities, the party says.

In the run-up to the ongoing protests and rallies in Dhaka, the Bangladesh government started a crackdown against BNP leadership and party workers. Two of the party’s top leaders, including the party’s de facto chief and general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, were also arrested and sent to jail on December 9.

According to police sources, more than 500 people were arrested in the wake of opposition-led protests. Security forces in the capital Dhaka also fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd of thousands of BNP supporters preparing for the December 10 rally.

^{Tens of thousands of supporters of Bangladesh’s main opposition party descended on Dhaka on December 10 to protest against the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. (Image Credit: Rehman Asad/AFP)}

Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Hafiz Akter said that police had strengthened surveillance to thwart potential chaos in the city. “Our interest is to protect common people from any harm. Any political party can have people on the street as long as it doesn’t cause a public nuisance,” he said.

Until recently, Bangladesh’s economy was thriving under its export-oriented model helped cushion the country’s economy from global volatility. More than 80% of Bangladesh’s exports are dependent on ready-made garment products. However, high energy prices triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war have significantly reduced its export orders from Western countries while at the same time massively devaluing the local currency against the U.S. dollar. The country’s forex reserves have dropped to an alarming $26.3 billion from $45.5 billion in one year.

Hasina government in August raised fuel prices by 40-50 percent across the board starting a domino effect on other essentials, including edible oils, rice, eggs, and vegetables, all of which now cost 20-30 percent more. This has angered Bangladeshis and many of them have taken to social media or the streets to express their frustration.