DHAKA: Violent anti-govt protests returned to the streets of Dhaka, but this time against the interim administration headed by Muhammad Yunus.Hundreds of govt employees, demanding implementation of the Ninth National Pay Scale and raising slogans – such as “there is no rice in the stomach, development is only in words” and “injustice will be washed away with blood”- against Yunus, marched through the Bangladesh capital as police used tear gas, water cannons and sound grenades to disperse them. But the worst scenes of clashes were from outside chief adviser Yunus’s official residence ‘Jamuna’ – the first protest directly targetting Yunus.
At least 40 protesters were injured outside ‘Jamuna’, as security personnel lathi-charged the govt employees as they broke barricades backed by members of Inqilab Moncho – a political party that has been against Yunus after its co-founder – a radical Islamist and India baiter – Sharif Osman Hadi died on Dec 18, six days after he was shot in the head in Dhaka.Inqilab Moncho protesters seeking an impartial UN-led probe into Hadi’s death, joined the govt employees as they moved towards Yunus’s residence.The protests ahead of the polls came as an embarrassment for the Yunus administration which said that “many foreign journalists and international observers have already arrived in the country” and appealed to citizens to “demonstrate the highest level of responsibility and cooperation to ensure a peaceful election”.