U.S.-Bangladesh tensions notched up this week after protesters caused the American ambassador to Dhaka to cut short a visit to the home of the mother and sister of a missing opposition politician for security reasons.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the country’s principal opposition organ, this past weekend held what was arguably the nation’s biggest anti-government rally in years, marking a solid end to the party’s long hiatus.
Bangladesh has arrested two senior opposition party leaders ahead of a huge anti-government rally in the nation’s capital Saturday and after political violence that drew a rare high-profile statement from the White House.
At least one man was killed and scores were injured when violence broke out Wednesday as police clashed with a big crowd of supporters of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party outside its headquarters in Dhaka, officials and activists said.
Bangladesh’s main opposition party is holding weekly protest rallies drawing tens of thousands of people who are demanding that a “neutral” caretaker administration be set up to oversee the next general election in order to guarantee a free and fair vote.