A huge crowd took to the streets of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, on Wednesday to express anger at the rising cost of living and to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the holding of elections.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and other opposition allies held rallies in Dhaka and nine other cities.
“The time for using force to stay in power is over,” said Mirza Abbas, a senior BNP leader, during a sit-in outside the party’s headquarters in the capital.
“Let a neutral government organize elections,” he shouted.
Police say 50,000 protesters have come to listen to Abbas, who was released from prison on Monday, a month after a crackdown on opposition figures.
But according to BNP officials, several hundred thousand protesters heeded her call in Dhaka and thousands more at similar rallies across the country.
Bangladesh remains one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, but conflict in Ukraine has forced the government to halt gas and diesel imports.
Soaring food and fuel prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine forced Ms Hasina’s government to impose lengthy blackouts and increase food distribution to the poor last year.
Bangladesh’s currency, the taka, has depreciated by almost 25%, driving up the cost of food imports and making life even more difficult for the most vulnerable.
The ruling Awami League staged a much smaller counter-protest in Dhaka in support of Ms Hasina and called on her to step down.
“The extremists are gathering in a place to overthrow us,” she told her supporters on Tuesday, “do not think that if the party is shaken, it will collapse. Things aren’t that simple.”
Western governments and the UN have expressed concern at the current political climate in Bangladesh, where Ms Hasina’s party dominates parliament.
In December 2021, the United States imposed sanctions on an elite counter-terrorism and crime-fighting group, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and seven senior security officials, including the national police chief, for gross human rights violations.
Ms Hasina’s government denies being behind the enforced disappearances of supporters and opposition leaders and says several criminals were killed in the crossfire with officials.