Dhaka, Jan 3 (EFE).- Authorities in Bangladesh on Wednesday deployed army and naval troops to assist the administration as violence between the supporters of rival candidates ahead of the Jan.7 national election spiked.
“Members of the armed forces will be stationed at nodal points and other places in every district, sub-district, and metropolitan area,” said a statement of the Inter-Service Public Relations, the media wing of the military.
The forces are completing area-wise deployment at the request of the election officer concerned, according to the statement.
It added that the army would be engaged in 62 districts and the navy would work in two coastal districts until Jan. 10.
The members of the Armed Forces will join 1,151 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh forces, who were deployed across the country last week to help maintain the law and order situation ahead of the election.
The deployment came amid continued reports of electoral violence, which left at least three people dead and scores injured since the election schedule was announced in mid-November.
Police spokesperson Kamrul Ahsan told EFE they had recorded 213 cases and arrested 235 people over a law-and-order situation, without providing details.
The Bengali newspaper Prothom Alo reported that 63 people were injured in electoral violence in eight districts between Monday night and Tuesday.
Supporters of a candidate set fire to 12 motorbikes of rival groups in one such incident in southern Barishal district on Tuesday afternoon,, local police officer Wahidul Islam told EFE.
The ruling Awami League is set to win the election for the fourth consecutive term after most opposition parties, including the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Islamist political groups, and leftists, decided to boycott the polls.
For over a year, the BNP and other opposition parties have been asking the government to step down and transfer power to a poll-time caretaker administration.
The BNP accuses the government of mass arrests, raids against party leaders and activists, torture in custody, enforced disappearances, and imprisonment in fabricated cases in the run-up to the election. EFE
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