BD police go on strike after sttacks by protesters

President dissolves parliament clearing way for an interim government and new elections as demanded by protesters.

By Staff Writer Last updated Aug 6, 2024

DHAKA: Police in Bangladesh have gone on strike seeking security after over 450 police stations were attacked by protesters following Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and escape to India on August 5.

Bangladesh Police Service Association in a statement said that they would not resume work untill all their personnel were provided security. It appealed to the protesters not to target the police, adding the problem was not with the police but with the political leadership of the country.

According to media reports, police were not seen in the capital city. There were also no traffic police personnel and protesting students were regulating movement of vehicles on roads.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s president dissolved parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for an interim government and new elections a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising, Reuters adds.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin’s office also announced that the leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister who had feuded with Hasina for decades, had been freed from house arrest.

Student protesters had threatened more demonstrations if parliament was not dissolved.

The movement that toppled Hasina rose out of demonstrations against public sector job quotas for families of veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war, seen by critics as a means to reserve jobs for allies of the ruling party.

About 300 people were killed and thousands injured in violence that ripped through the country since July.