Bangladesh Police Return To Dhaka Streets After Weeklong Strike

Dhaka:

Bangladeshi police resumed patrols of the capital Dhaka on Monday, ending a weeklong strike that left a law and order vacuum following the abrupt ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina.

Officers vanished from the streets of the sprawling megacity of 20 million people last week after Hasina’s resignation and flight abroad ended her 15-year rule.

Police were loathed for spearheading a lethal crackdown on the weeks of protests that forced her departure, with 42 officers among the more than 450 people killed.

Police had vowed not to resume work until their safety on duty was guaranteed, but they agreed to return after late-night talks with the new interim government, helmed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

“The police association ended its strike last night,” the force’s national spokesperson Enamul Haque Sagor told AFP.

“Police officers have returned to work today,” he added. “You can see them managing traffic in Dhaka’s streets.”

‘Heinous attacks’

Student-led protests against Hasina’s government had been largely peaceful until police attempted to violently disperse them.

Around 450 of the country’s 600 police stations were targeted in arson and vandalism attacks over the past month, according to the national police union.

Some began reopening late last week under guard by the army, an institution held in higher esteem for largely refusing to participate in the crackdown.

In the police’s absence, the students who led the protests that toppled Hasina volunteered to restore law and order after looting and reprisal attacks in the hours after her departure.

They acted as traffic wardens, formed overnight neighbourhood watch patrols and guarded Hindu temples and other places of worship, quickly settling the unrest.

Yunus’s “council of advisors”, the de facto cabinet now administering the country, said it had noted with “grave concern” some attacks on Hindus and other minorities.

In its first official statement on Sunday night, the cabinet said it would work to “find ways to resolve such heinous attacks”.

Bangladeshi Hindus account for around eight percent of the country’s 170 million people and have regularly been the targets of violence during periods of upheaval.

Hundreds have arrived on India’s border since last week, asking to cross.

Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India a week ago as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted tenure.

Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)