Bangladesh’s opposition accused authorities of placing their leader under virtual house arrest Thursday as tens of thousands of troops were deployed across the country ahead of elections next month.
Bangladesh’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said police were barring anyone from visiting their leader Khaleda Zia at her home in Dhaka.
The move comes after Zia, a two-time former premier and arch rival of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, called for supporters to stage a mass march on the capital this Sunday aimed to scupper the polls.
The BNP is one of 21 opposition parties which are boycotting the elections over Hasina’s refusal to stand aside and allow a neutral caretaker government to organise the contest.
The country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, has also been banned from taking part.
“Since yesterday she has been under virtual house arrest,” BNP vice-president Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury told a news agency.
