Bangladesh police clash with opposition protestors demanding PM's resignation for fair polls

DHAKA, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Police in Bangladesh capital Dhaka Saturday fought with opposition protestors with teargas and rubber bullets.

In a protest demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation, the opposition protestors gathered in the morning to block traffic on key arterial routes in the capital city.

Television footage showed the police used rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the gatherings and drove the protesters away from the streets.

On Friday, Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which has a long-standing rivalry with Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party, announced holding the sit-in program at all entry points of Dhaka from 11:00 a.m. local time to press home its one-point demand for polls under a non-party interim government in early 2024.

Bachchu Miah, chief of Dhaka Medical College Hospital's police outpost, told reporters that at least six protesters were rushed to the hospital following the clashes.

Some 90 BNP leaders and activists were reportedly detained on charges of engaging in clashes for hours with law enforcers and vandalizing vehicles.

Faruque Hossain, a spokesman for Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), told journalists that the BNP men vandalized at least 30 vehicles, 10 of which belong to the police.

At least 20 police officers were injured in the incident, according to the DMP official.

Zia, who has thrice been the prime minister, has been in jail since she was convicted in a corruption case in February 2018.

Hasina's AL government entered the last year of its third consecutive tenure this year.