DHAKA: Police fired teargas and used stun grenades and batons to disperse protesters outside Bangladesh’s national Parliament complex Friday, as tensions soared over the interim government’s new political charter.
Some protesters vandalized a police vehicle and makeshift tents, and others clashed with soldiers and security officials in the capital Dhaka. Witnesses said several people were injured.
The clashes broke out after several hundred people, who described themselves as those whose protests ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, started demonstrating Friday. They expressed anger that their concerns were not addressed in the new charter, despite their loved ones dying during last year’s mass uprising against Hasina.
The interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has invited the country’s main political parties to sign a new political charter Friday to pave the way for a raft of political reforms.
The “July National Charter,” named after the national uprisings that started in July 2024, outlines a roadmap for constitutional amendments, legal changes and the enactment of new laws.
