Fear looms large as ruling, oppostion parites plan street programs on Jan. 5

DHAKA, Jan. 3 (NsNewsWire) — Tensions are running high across Bangladesh as the country’s  political situation is once again heating up centering on the 1st anniversary of Jan. 5 parliamentary elections, which 21 parties including ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party boycotted.

A year on, the BNP-led alliance now wants to observe Jan. 5 as “Democracy Killing Day” and hold a rally in the capital, while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Bangladesh Awami League party is all set to celebrate it as “Victory Day for Democracy”, raising among the general masses the spectre of a return of wide spread violence in capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.

Scores of people were dead and hundreds injured in the months of violence centering the Jan. 5 elections.