Bangladesh deploys border guards just after deadly anti-Modi protests
27 March, 2021
Bangladesh features deployed border guards to greatly help maintain order, a senior officer said on Saturday (Mar 27) after deadly protests by hardline Islamists against a good visit by Indian Primary Minister Narendra Modi rocked the Muslim bulk nation.
The violence, which commenced on Friday at the key mosque in the administrative centre Dhaka, spread to several key districts in the South Asian nation of 168 million, departing five persons dead and scores injured.
Facebook features been restricted in the country, a organization spokesman said after users complained they cannot access the website since late Friday afternoon seeing that images and reports of the violence were shared found in social media.
A good spokesman for the Border Safeguard Bangladesh (BGB), which as well acts as a reserve paramilitary force to keep law and order, said it had deployed troops since Friday night.
"With the instructions of the house ministry and in help of the civil administration, required amount of BGB features been deployed in several districts of the united states," Lieutenant Colonel Fayzur Rahman told AFP, without disclosing the figures involved.
Rahman, who's the businesses director of the force, said there had been zero reports of violence after their deployment.
"Situation is typical," he said.
The disturbances came as Bangladesh marked 50 years of independence with rights groups calling for a finish to growing authoritarianism including forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings.
Police said four bodies of participants of Hefazat-e-Islam, a good hardline Islamist group, were brought to Chittagong Medical College Hospital after violence erupted in Hathazari, a rural town where the group's main leaders are based.
A good supporter of the group was also killed in clashes in the eastern border town of Brahmanbaria, another key bastion of Hefazat.
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A Hefazat spokesman said tens of thousands of supporters of the group demonstrated on Friday to protest against Modi's two-time tour to Bangladesh.
The group has also called nationwide demonstrations for Saturday and a strike on Sunday to protest against the police's actions and firing on "peaceful" protesters.
Hefazat is known because of its nationwide network and large-scale protests demanding Bangladesh introduce blasphemy laws.
In 2013 police clashed with thousands of Hefazat supporters in Dhaka, leaving almost 50 people dead.
Hefazat aside, a various range of Bangladeshi organizations - including students, leftists and other Islamist outfits - have already been staging protests against Modi's visit.
They accuse Modi and his Hindu-nationalist government of stoking religious tensions and inciting anti-Muslim violence including in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002 when 1,000 persons died. Modi was Gujarat's chief minister at the time.
Modi was set to visit two key Hindu temples in rural districts of southern Bangladesh on Saturday.
As protests spread, Facebook users complained they could not access the site.
Post and telecommunications minister Mustafa Jabbar said his ministry had not been in charge of the stoppage.
"This is simply not our decision," he told AFP, adding it had been up to the law enforcement agencies to state what actions that they had taken.
"We're aware that our services have been restricted in Bangladesh. We're attempting to understand extra and desire to have total access restored as soon as possible," a Facebook spokesperson stated.
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