No polls: Bangladesh opposition threatens a violent coup of the government

• Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, have threatened an armed coup of the government.
• Jamaat-e-Islami would not run in the elections because they would not be free and fair.
• The Awami League staged a nationwide demonstration on Saturday in response to the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami’s threats. 

Rather than facing the Awami League in the polls, Bangladesh’s opposition parties, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, have threatened an armed coup of the government. Bangladesh’s general elections are set to take place in December 2023.

The Jamaat-e-Islami had previously stated that they would not run in the elections because they would not be free and fair.

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In an address at the National Press Club last week, BNP volunteer wing chairman Abdul Kader Bhuiyan urged party followers to reenact the 1975 tragedy, saying, “Time is appropriate — pick up guns and restage another 1975.”

He was referring to the brutal coup that killed founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family that year.

Only Sheikh Hasina and Rehana, his two daughters, avoided the carnage because they were in Europe.

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The Awami League staged a nationwide demonstration on Saturday in response to the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami’s threats.

Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has been the Prime Minister of Bangladesh since January 2009. Hasina has survived 19 assassination attempts during her presidency, the most deadly of which was a grenade attack on her rally on August 21, 2004.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi intelligence is bracing for more bloodshed ahead of the June 25 opening of the Padma River train bridge.

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