Three people were murdered in skirmishes between supporters of the main opposition BNP and the ruling Awami League during a statewide general strike on Sunday, raising tensions in Bangladesh ahead of parliamentary elections in January, news agency PTI reported. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, launched a nationwide strike on Sunday to protest the police action that caused the party to call off their big gathering the day before. According to police, one BNP activist was murdered after falling from an under-construction building in Dhaka's Mohammadpur neighbourhood while attempting to flee after lighting a bus on fire.
According to BNP leaders, the dead was coming home after the gathering when opposing Awami League supporters whisked him to the building, where he was dumped on the ground while police stood by.
According to police, one Awami League volunteer was murdered amid skirmishes between opposing parties in the northeastern Lalmonirhat area.
According to the fire department and police, an unnamed miscreant set fire to a bus in the Demra district on the outskirts of the city, killing one and injuring another.
Rafiq Bhuiyan, a top journalist who was injured during skirmishes between police and opposition demonstrators in Dhaka's Kakrail district on Saturday, died on Sunday.
Several passenger buses were destroyed or set on fire in the capital and elsewhere during the day, according to media sources.
The news comes a day after brutal skirmishes left two people dead, including a police officer, and over 200 injured. Several ambulances, as well as other vehicles, including motorcycles, entering the frontal area of Rajarbagh Central Police Hospital and a police booth, were set on fire.
Earlier in the day, police raided the residence of BNP secretary general or de facto party boss Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in the Gulshan area, raising tensions.
The BNP held a large gathering here on Saturday, asking that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quit so that free and fair elections may be held under a non-party interim administration.
"We have taken him (Alamgir) to our custody for subsequent legal actions,” a spokesman of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s detective branch told reporters.
Rahat Ara, Alamgir's wife, stated that the police first came to their home and left with a hard disc containing CCTV camera video from their home and building. They subsequently returned and arrested Alamgir, 75.
"He (Fakhrul) is very ill," the wife was quoted by PTI in its report.
According to BNP spokesperson Zahir Uddin Swapan, police also raided the houses of key party officials and detained approximately 3,000 party workers and sympathisers.
Meanwhile, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the Home Minister, said that the opposition went on a rampage during their demonstration. "They (opposition activists) destroyed many (surveillance) cameras, yet many CCTV footages are available and stern legal actions await those involved in the attacks," he was quoted as saying.
Riot police stormed the BNP's headquarters office overnight, as authorities sent in paramilitary soldiers ahead of the national walkout a day earlier.
According to witnesses, armed police armed with riot vehicles and water cannons took position surrounding the BNP's vacant main office, threatening of harsh punitive actions against security violations "in the name of stoppage."
On Sunday morning, there was little traffic on the roadways. Many stores and businesses were closed in places where there was a possibility of violence, such as Naya Paltan, Purana Paltan, and Motijheel.
"A political party has called a strike. Police will take stern legal action if someone disrupts peoples’ free movement or tries to breach the security,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman told a late-night media briefing.
To preserve public order in the city, the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) sent 11 platoons, or around 300 personnel.
Widespread circulation Prothom Alo newspaper stated police detained at least 900 BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami officials and activists around the nation in the last 24 hours.
The BNP is calling for the return of the election-time non-party caretaker government system, which was used in four elections from 1991 to 2008.
The December 2008 elections established Hasina's Awami League, but the 2014 and 2008 elections were held under the incumbent government, which repealed the constitutional requirement after taking office in January 2009.