Human Rights Watch has called upon Bangladesh's international partners to insist that elections cannot be considered fair when the opposition is targeted, harassed, and behind bars, The Daily Star reports.
"International partners should make clear that they will not continue business as usual with Bangladesh as authorities carry out election abuses," The Daily Star quoted Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, as saying.
A statement issued by Human Rights Watch accused the Bangladesh government of ignoring international calls for restraint and its own pledges to hold a peaceful, free, and fair election. National elections are planned for January 2024.
"Bangladesh’s international partners should insist that elections cannot be considered fair when the opposition is targeted, harassed, and behind bars,” Meenakshi Ganguly said.
The Awami League-led government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has arrested thousands of opposition members including Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and sealed the party offices.
The government has increasingly carried out arbitrary mass arrests over the last year in what appears to be a coordinated effort to stifle the opposition ahead of the elections, Human Rights Watch said.
During the clashes on October 28, both Awami League and BNP supporters engaged in violence, injuring hundreds including dozens of journalists. Both parties have denied their involvement.
Political party leaders should call on their supporters to campaign peacefully, Human Rights Watch said.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called on “all political actors to make clear that such violence is unacceptable and to avoid any statements or actions that could constitute incitement to violence.”
According to the opposition, nearly 5,000 party leaders and activists have been arrested since similar protests took place in July, while tens of thousands have been accused in hundreds of additional cases. “Prisons are overrun with our party leaders,” BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said at a news conference on October 26.
The United States has said it will “impose visa restrictions on Bangladeshi individuals responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh.”