Dhaka, Dec 29 (EFE).- Authorities in Bangladesh deployed paramilitary forces as violence between the ers of rival candidates ahead of the Jan. 7 national election has escalated.
“A total of 1,151 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh forces have been deployed across the country today to help maintain the law and order situation ahead of the election,” BGB spokesperson Shariful Islam told EFE.
Islam said the paramilitary troopers would remain on duty until Jan. 10 to tackle post-election violence, if any.
The deployment came after over a dozen people were injured in several districts in electoral violence between Wednesday and Thursday.
In one such incident, nine people sustained injuries in a clash between the ers of the ruling Awami League candidate and an independent candidate in the northern Jaypurhat district.
“People from both sides were injured,” local police chief Shahinur Rahman told EFE.
Three people were injured in clashes between ers of two candidates in northwest Pabna district on Thursday, local police chief Anwar Hossain told EFE.
Citing a police report, the local newspaper New Age reported on Friday that 172 incidents of electoral violence occurred between Nov. 30 and Dec. 27 in 45 districts.
At least two people were killed and scores were injured in the electoral violence, the newspaper said, quoting the police.
The ruling Awami League is set to win the election for the fourth consecutive term after most opposition parties, including the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Islamist political groups, and leftists, decided to boycott the elections.
For over a year, the BNP and other opposition parties have been asking the government to step down and transfer power to a poll-time caretaker istration—a demand the Awami League has rejected.
The BNP accuses the government of mass arrests, raids against party leaders and activists, torture in custody, enforced disappearances, and imprisonment in fabricated cases in the run-up to the election.
The Awami League and BNP have ruled Bangladesh since 1991, except for a brief quasi-military rule in 2007–08. EFE
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