 Riot police indiscriminately clubbed senior opposition leaders, lawmakers and the activists of Awami League (AL)-led 14-party opposition coalition to thwart their attempt to lay siege to the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat in the capital yesterday, injuring around 100 including Saber Hossain Chowdhury. Every single attempt by the opposition leaders and activists to approach the vicinity of the EC Secretariat was met by police firing teargas shells and charging batons indiscriminately that left Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina's Political Secretary Saber Hossain Chowdhury critically injured.
| “... opposition leaders and activists were met by police firing teargas shells and charging batons indiscriminately...” |
A road march of a newly formed opposition alliance of several political parties, National Unity Front (NUF), towards the EC Secretariat, was also intercepted by police near Bangla Motor intersection where leaders of the alliance announced a seven-day ultimatum to CEC MA Aziz and three other election commissioners to resign from their posts.
The 14-party coalition yesterday announced a countrywide dawn to dusk hartal scheduled for Sunday and countrywide demonstrations today protesting the police atrocities. As several thousand opposition activists reached a police barricade on Mirpur Road near Road No 27 intersection in Dhanmondi and tried to defy the government's ban on any gathering near the EC Secretariat area yesterday, | “...the law enforcers all of a sudden began clubbing the marchers indiscriminately...” |
the law enforcers all of a sudden began clubbing the marchers indiscriminately although State Minister For Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar on Tuesday had asked the law enforcers and the opposition to restrain themselves. Saber, also an organising secretary of AL, had been admitted to Bangladesh Medical College Hospital first, where doctors declared his condition as critical, but later was shifted to Apollo Hospital. AL sources said he might be taken abroad soon for better treatment. |