Police in Bangladesh have fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse supporters of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who are demonstrating nationwide to demand her return to the country.

A police vehicle was set on fire in Gopalganj district, where the banned student wing of Hasina’s Awami League party clashed with security forces, the Daily Mirror reported at 9.46 a.m. on Wednesday, carrying a BBC account. Hiru News, reporting three minutes earlier and also citing the BBC, gives the same account.

The protests began a day after the former leader said she had requested a passport to return to Bangladesh from exile in India — the request this desk reported on Tuesday, alongside a tribunal prosecutor’s statement that she would have no option but to face her death sentence if she came back.

One death reported

A 60-year-old driver of a passenger bus was killed by smoke inhalation after people set fire to the vehicle in the city of Faridpur early on Tuesday. Several other passenger vehicles were set alight in various parts of the country in the run-up to the protest.

Traffic was disrupted as protesters tried to set up roadblocks using burning tyres. About 200 protesters briefly blocked the 6.2 km Padma bridge across the Ganges, which connects Dhaka with the south-western region. Bangladeshi local media reported that dozens of crude bombs had exploded in Dhaka and elsewhere over the past few days.

The first organised show of force since the uprising

The demonstrations are led by the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the Awami League’s student wing, and are seen as the first organised display of strength by Hasina’s supporters since she was ousted in August 2024 following a mass uprising against her rule.

The government rejected responsibility for the violence falling on the state and pointed outward.

“Any attempt to worsen the law-and-order situation or create instability through any conspiracy within the country from across the border (India) will not be allowed to succeed,” Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said.

A senior BCL leader, now in exile abroad, denied his organisation was behind the attacks. “Our supporters were not responsible for the violent incidents. They were carried out by unknown miscreants. We believe in peaceful protests,” he said.

Background

Hasina fled to India two years ago, ending a 15-year period in power. Opposition parties accused her of jailing political rivals, suppressing dissent and overseeing widespread human rights abuses; she has always denied the charges. The United Nations has estimated that up to 1,400 people were killed during the 2024 anti-government protests, most by gunfire from security forces.

The Awami League’s activities were banned soon after she left the country, and the party was not permitted to contest the February general election. A special tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia after finding her guilty of crimes against humanity, a verdict she calls “biased and politically motivated”.

She has said she wants to return in December despite the death sentence and asked the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi to issue her a passport. The government refused, calling her “a terrorist” and “a fugitive criminal”, and noted that an extradition treaty with India is active.

A note on sourcing

Both Sri Lankan outlets carrying this story attribute it to the BBC, and the Daily Mirror’s filing reproduces a BBC report. Two verified newsrooms carry it, but they are relaying one underlying account rather than reporting independently — the corroboration is of the relay, not of the facts. No Sri Lankan newsroom has a correspondent in Bangladesh on this story.

Not reported

Neither filing gives a total figure for arrests, injuries or protest locations, and the bus driver in Faridpur is the only casualty named by circumstance. Nothing states whether the BCL leader quoted was speaking on the record by name, where the exiled leadership is based, or what Indian authorities have said about the passport request or the home minister’s remarks. There is no indication of how long the protests are expected to continue or whether security forces have been reinforced ahead of December, the month Hasina says she intends to return.