100 injured in Bangla poll campaign violence

dhaka — Bangladesh’s election campaign turned violent on Tuesday with scores injured at political rallies across the country, as police fired pellet guns into crowds and stick-wielding mobs attacked rival candidates.

Police said clashes broke out in at least seven major towns on just the second day of campaigning, injuring nearly 100 people who turned out to cheer the two major parties contesting the December 30 poll.

The unrest follows a crackdown on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in recent weeks, with hundreds of supporters from the main opposition movement thrown behind bars before campaigning had even begun.

In Thakurgaon, a northern district, a motorcade for the BNP’s secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was set upon by a huge crowd swinging batons.

Local police chief Mohammad Moniruzzaman said the windows of several cars were smashed, but Alamgir escaped unscathed. There were reports of several injuries.

The opposition blamed thugs aligned to the ruling Awami League, the party chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who is running for a record fourth term in office.

In Kabirhat, a southern town, at least 22 people were hurt as rivals from the Awami League and BNP clashed with sticks and hurled rocks during a campaign stop, police said.

In the central town of Faridganj, police said they fired rubber bullets at an opposition parade after rocks were hurled at them. “We were compelled to retaliate in self defence,” said local police chief Harunur Rashid. —

They are creating the ground for an uneven poll through this violence,”

Rizvi Ahmed, BNP spokesman