Bangladesh has deployed more than 1.89 lakh policemen to ensure law and order ahead of the January 7 general election being boycotted by the main opposition BNP, media reports said on Sunday.
Presently, the country’s police force has around 2.13 lakh personnel, including civil staff, The Daily Star newspaper reported. A total of 1,89,000 police personnel have been deployed nationwide, who will be on election duty with magistrates on the voting day, besides patrolling and working in the strike teams, Deputy Inspector General (operation) at Police Headquarters, Anowar Hossain was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
According to the bdnews24 news portal, 1,74,000 police personnel will be on duty without any leave, while the remaining 15,000 policemen will be engaged in routine work.
Additional policemen and plainclothesmen have been deployed to the areas vulnerable to violence or irregularities, Hossain told the news portal. Since October 29, the ailing former premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has held intermittent nationwide strikes and transport blockades.
The BNP is boycotting the general elections after the government rejected its demand for an interim non-party neutral government to organise the voting. According to a media tally, 11 people died, 386 vehicles were torched, and four trains were derailed from tracks in the past two months in political violence. Police arrested thousands of opposition activists and figures, including de-facto BNP leader and party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, over charges of violence.
The BNP is carrying out an anti-election street campaign, calling for intermittent strikes and transport blockades, saying no election under the incumbent government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would be fair or neutral. It has also called for civil disobedience against the ruling Awami Party-led dispensation, urging people not to pay taxes and utility bills to press its demand for a non-party interim government for election oversight by amending the country’s Constitution.
The BNP had boycotted the 2014 election but took part in the 2018 polls, which party leaders later said was a mistake, alleging that the voting was marred with widespread rigging and intimidation.
On Friday, Bangladesh deployed 1,151 platoons of paramilitary border guards across the country to ensure that the general election is held in a free, fair and peaceful manner.
The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel will work in tandem with the police, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and armed forces for 13 days surrounding the January 7 polls.
The US and other major Western countries called for dialogue between the ruling Awami League and particularly with the BNP to ensure an inclusive and credible election, which, however, saw no headway due to reluctance from both sides.
With the BNP boycotting the election and no other credible opposition party against it, Hasina’s Awami League is likely to gain an upper hand and will likely form the government for the fourth consecutive term.
