Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at huge crowds of Bangladesh opposition supporters on Saturday to break up a giant protest against the prime minister, with an officer and a protester killed in several hours of violent clashes in central Dhaka. More than 100,000 supporters of two major Bangladesh opposition parties rallied to demand Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down to allow a free and fair vote under a neutral government. Live footage on the verified Facebook page of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) showed thousands of people running for safety as sound grenades went off one after another and plumes of black smoke rose from the roads. Correspondents said the violence spread in roads and alleys in the centre of the capital as police fired tear gas and rubber shotgun rounds, while the protesters threw stones and bricks. One officer was killed and more than 100 injured, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain, telling: \u201cThe constable was hacked in the head by opposition activists.\u201d BNP said one of its youth wing activists was killed during Saturday\u2019s clashes. \u201cShamim Molla, one of our youth wing leaders, was shot dead by police. His body is at a hospital at Rajarbagh (in central Dhaka),\u201d Sayrul Kabir Khan, a spokesman of the party, said. The protests by the BNP and the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-i-Islami, were the biggest so far this year, journalists on site said, and marked a new phase in their protests with a general election due within three months.At least 20 people were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the country\u2019s largest, with wounds from rubber bullets, police inspector Bacchu Mia said. The clashes began in front of the city\u2019s largest Catholic church when rowdy opposition supporters fought with sticks and allegedly torched a bus and a police post. Both BNP and Jamaat-i-Islami called for a nationwide strike on Sunday to protest the violence. \u201cPolice and armed ruling party cadres attacked our peaceful rally,\u201d party spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan said.The resurgent opposition has been mounting protests to press their demands for months, despite the BNP\u2019s ailing leader Khaleda Zia, a two-time premier and old foe of Hasina\u2019s, being effectively under house arrest after a conviction on corruption charges. Hundreds of opposition activists were detained in the days running up to the rally, officials confirmed, but her supporters poured into Dhaka on Saturday, crammed into buses despite checkpoints on roads into the capital, and even riding on top of packed trains. \u201cVote thief, vote thief, Sheikh Hasina vote thief,\u201d chanted the crowd at a demonstration in front of the BNP headquarters. Student activist Sekandar Badsha, 24, from Chittagong, said: \u201cWe demand the immediate resignation of the Hasina government, release of our leader Khaleda Zia and establishing the people\u2019s right to vote.\u201d At least 10,000 police had been deployed, officials said. Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Hossain said that at least 100,000 people had joined the BNP rally, while up to 25,000 were at the Jamaat protest near the city\u2019s main commercial district \u2014 which had been banned by police. BNP spokesman Swapan said that there were more than one million people at its rally, which he described as its \u201cfinal call\u201d for Hasina to resign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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