In post-Hasina Bangladesh, BNP factions are now fighting among themselves

Factions of Bangladesh’s longtime opposition party – which is waiting to take the reins of government – have been fighting in what police say are street brawls over establishing control of businesses seized from members of the ousted Awami League.

At least 10 people have been killed and a few hundred have been injured in intra-party clashes among Bangladesh Nationalist Party members since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country on Aug. 5, according to Ain O Salish Kendra, a human rights organization, and local media reports.

BNP officials have taken a hardline stance over the clashes between factions and no one is above facing consequences, a party leader warned.

“We will not deny any complaint. But I am making sure that no one is getting off by being involved in misdeeds,” said BNP spokesman Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, the party’s senior joint secretary general.

“A clear message has been given from the highest level of the party, no matter how important the leader is, there is no exemption if anyone is involved,” he told BenarNews, adding, “the party is keeping a watchful eye on all matters.” 

An interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has struggled to maintain law and order in Bangladesh in the weeks since Hasina fell from power amid student-led protests against her administration.

After Hasina’s government collapsed, there have been steady reports about violence targeting businesses and properties owned by officials from the former ruling party, such as garment factories being set ablaze. 

In the post-Hasina political vacuum and chaos, feuding and deadly street fighting have also been reported among BNP members and followers. BNP officials have confirmed that at least 30 leaders and activists have been expelled or given written warnings for violating party discipline since Aug 5. 

The party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, is rearing to take back the reins of government after 15 years of consecutive rule by Hasina and her Awami League. The BNP has been pressing the transitional Yunus administration to pave the way for elections, which have yet to be set.

The BNP had refused to participate in a general election in January that saw Hasina return to power for a fourth consecutive term.

Among the deadly intra-party incidents that have been reported, at least two people were killed and three were critically injured on Sept. 11 during a fight between two groups of BNP supporters in Lohagara, a sub-district of southwestern Narail district.

Both groups clashed over establishing supremacy in the community, local police chief Abdullah Al Mamun told BenarNews, adding that the two victims were siblings.

On the same day, at least 40 people were injured, two local garment factories were vandalized and a dyeing factory was torched during fighting between two BNP groups seeking dominance in the Fatulla area of central Narayanganj district.

“During their clash, clothing factories were attacked, vandalized and set on fire. After receiving the information, the police controlled the situation,” Fatulla Police Chief Salayan Mahmud told BenarNews.

On Sept. 9, two former leaders of the local unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, BNP’s student wing, led a clash that resulted in two deaths and at least 20 injuries in the northern Sherpur district.

Sherpur Police Superintendent Aminul Islam said one group had used a public address system to carry out an attack on their counter group.

“Locals informed us that the incident took place over efforts to establish supremacy in a local market,” he told BenarNews.

Awami League forced out

Meanwhile in the capital Dhaka, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal has taken over the temporary office of the Mohammadpur unit of Awami League’s student wing, the Chhatra League.

Elsewhere, BNP’s cultural affairs organization seized a unit office of the Awami League next to Dhaka’s Segunbagicha Mosque.

Riaz Uddin Riaz, an Awami League Dhaka South Metropolitan unit official, lamented BNP’s actions.

“We have no office anywhere in the country. All are occupied,” he told BenarNews.

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In another case of occupation, officials freed the ancestral home of a famous writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay, in central Madaripur district three days after a BNP leader had claimed rights to the property. Gangopadhyay, who died in 2012, was an Indian poet, novelist, short story writer, historian and critic of the Bengali language.

On Sept. 7, Sohel Hawladar, the former BNP legal affairs secretary of Kalkini, a sub-district of Madaripur, occupied the house and claimed it was sitting on his family’s land.

A Kalkini official, Uttam Kumar, said the local administration had retaken control of the property, and warned that no one could enter it without permission.

“Senior officials are being approached to take action against the person involved in the encroachment,”  he told BenarNews.

A political analyst said clashes to establish dominance should be stopped if BNP wants to bring about positive change in the country.

“Such incidents are very sad. It is the result of political criminalization,” political analyst Badiul Alam Majumdar, a leader of Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik, an NGO based in Dhaka, told BenarNews.