Ready for anything: Border Guard Bangladesh personnel standing guard outside the High Court in Dhaka. -- AFP
Classes and transportation in Bangladesh were seriously disrupted as ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her former ruling party called for a nationwide "lockdown" in protest against her trial over last year's protests that left hundreds dead.
Hasina faces charges of crimes against humanity involving a crackdown on the student-led uprising that ended her 15-year rule in August 2024. She has been in exile in India since then and has not been seen in public or online.
A special tribunal in Dhaka is expected to announce a verdict against Hasina on Monday, chief prosecutor Tajul Islam said during a news conference yesterday.
Hasina's now-banned Awami League urged its supporters to protest, while the government and opposition vowed to stop them.
Schools in Dhaka and major cities across Bangladesh switched to online classes and examinations while public transportation was severely disrupted as the government heightened security across the country.
Dhaka has suffered incidents of vandalism this week as usually clogged streets remained mostly empty yesterday.
A fire bomb was thrown at a government office in Gopalganj district, which is Hasina's ancestral home and a party stronghold.
An office of Grameen Bank, a small loan institution founded by Bangladesh's current interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, was torched in eastern Bangladesh, local media reported.
Muhammad, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate along with Grameen Bank, is expected to address the nation. He took over as the head of an interim government three days after Hasina's fall on Aug 5, 2024.
On Wednesday evening, arson was reported on a train and a bus in Dhaka, and crude bombs went off earlier in the day on the Dhaka University campus.
Yesterday morning, soldiers and other security agencies were deployed to guard the premises of the special tribunal, which is overseeing a case involving former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.
Chowdhury Abdullah is an "approver" in the case, meaning he pleaded guilty and became a state witness against Hasina.
He was brought to the tribunal with tight security yesterday. Both Hasina and Asaduzzaman are being tried in absentia.
The prosecution has not sought any punishment for Chowdhury Abdullah. -- AP