Bangladesh protests turn violent as Hasina eyes return

Bangladesh protests turned violent on Tuesday as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at supporters of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who are demanding that she be allowed to return from exile in India. A police vehicle was set on fire and a bus driver died, BBC News reported.

The nationwide demonstrations were organised by the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the banned student wing of Hasina's Awami League party. They began a day after the former leader said she had applied for a passport so that she could travel home.

The protests are seen as the first organised show of strength by Hasina's supporters since she was forced from power in August 2024 after a mass uprising against her 15-year rule.

Fires, roadblocks and a death in Faridpur

The worst clashes took place in Gopalganj district, where BCL activists fought with security forces and a police vehicle was torched. Elsewhere, protesters tried to block roads with burning tyres, disrupting traffic in several parts of the country.

The main incidents reported so far include:

• A 60-year-old bus driver killed by smoke inhalation after his vehicle was set alight in Faridpur early on Tuesday
• Several other passenger vehicles burned in the run-up to the protest
• About 200 protesters briefly blocking the 6.2km Padma Bridge, which links Dhaka with the south-west
• Dozens of crude bombs exploding in Dhaka and other areas over the past few days, according to local media

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed warned that any attempt to undermine law and order or create instability through a conspiracy "from across the border", a reference to India, would not succeed. A senior BCL leader now living abroad denied that the group's supporters were behind the violence, blaming "unknown miscreants" and saying the movement believed in peaceful protest.

Bangladesh protests: why Hasina's return divides the country

Hasina fled to neighbouring India two years ago after student-led protests against job quotas grew into a nationwide movement following a deadly police crackdown. The United Nations has estimated that up to 1,400 people were killed during the 2024 unrest, most of them by gunfire from security forces.

Her opponents accused her government of jailing rivals, crushing dissent and overseeing widespread human rights abuses, charges she has always denied. The Awami League's activities were banned after she left, and the party was not allowed to take part in February's general election.

Last year a special tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced Hasina to death in absentia after finding her guilty of crimes against humanity. She has rejected the trial as biased and politically motivated. Despite the sentence, she has said she wants to return in December and has asked the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi for a passport.

Dhaka says no passport and wants extradition

The government has refused to issue her a passport and has called her a terrorist. Junior foreign affairs minister Humaiun Kobir said Hasina was a fugitive and that Dhaka wanted India to hand her over under the extradition treaty between the two countries. A state prosecutor said on Tuesday that the death sentence would be carried out if she came back, as she had missed the chance to appeal.

Awami League leaders say hundreds of their supporters have been killed in mob violence over the past two years and dozens have died in the custody of security forces. Officials in Dhaka deny that the party's members are being systematically targeted.

The unrest adds to a period of political tension across South and Southeast Asia, where several former leaders are facing the courts. In Malaysia this week, former Prime Minister Najib Razak left prison to serve the rest of his sentence at home, as covered in our report on Najib's house arrest. Closer to Thailand, conflict also continues in Myanmar, as described in our story on airstrikes on a clinic and a school.

Travellers and businesses with links to Bangladesh should follow official updates closely and stay away from protest sites while tensions remain high.

The original report was published by BBC News.

Image: Demonstrators during the 2024 quota reform movement in Dhaka, the uprising that preceded the latest Bangladesh protests. Photo by S.M.M. Musabbir Uddin via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.