BNP supporters protest firing by miscreants during election campaign in Chattogram. Photo: AFP
DHAKA:
Gunmen on motorcycles attacked a political rally in Bangladesh, killing one person and wounding two others, including a candidate, officials said Thursday, after parties began campaigning for the landmark election.
The major parties opened their campaign on Wednesday for elections scheduled for February 2026, the first since a deadly uprising last year toppled the autocratic government of former ruler Sheikh Hasina.
The campaign turned violent almost immediately. The shooting occurred at a rally on Wednesday for the powerful Bangladesh National Party (BNP) attended by hundreds in the port city of Chattogram, police said.
Senior BNP leader Amir Khasru Mahmood Chowdhury said it was “an attempt to destabilize politics and disrupt elections”.
The BNP is widely seen as the frontrunner in the polls.
Police said gunmen quickly opened fire on a crowd of hundreds at the rally, but insisted the BNP candidate was not the target.
“The miscreants … fired at their target and fled in a flash,” senior police officer Hasib Aziz told reporters late Wednesday.
Candidate Ershad Ullah was shot and injured, along with one of his supporters. A third man was killed.
“We will urge candidates to inform the police station at least 24 hours before any election campaign so that more police can be deployed,” Aziz said.
“Show restraint”
The South Asian nation of about 170 million people has been in political turmoil since Hasina was ousted by a student uprising in August 2024.
The election campaign is technically unofficial because the election commission is not expected to announce the polling day until December.
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus, the 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate who serves as chief adviser, has repeatedly promised that elections will be held in February.
Yunus ordered an inquiry into the shooting, the media group said in a statement. The interim government “calls on all political actors and their supporters to maintain calm, exercise restraint and ensure that February’s general elections are held in an atmosphere of peace, dignity and justice,” it said on Thursday.
Bangladeshi police offered cash rewards on Wednesday for the surrender of more than 1,300 machine guns, rifles and pistols looted during last year’s insurgency.
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