Massive demonstration in Bangladesh protest load shedding, price hikes

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Hundreds of thousands of people under the banner of the main opposition political party demonstrated Saturday in Bangladesh’s capital, protesting nationwide acute load shedding and unscrupulous price hikes of daily commodities.

Demonstrators said seven- to eight-hour load shedding has become an integrated part of daily life and sufferings amid a scorching heatwave that has "crossed the level of tolerance."

"(Prime Minister) Sheikh Hasina fraudulently declared there is no power shortage in the country. But we face even seven to eight hours long load shedding in Dhaka and more than 10 hours long blackouts all over the country daily," Abdul Awal, a worker at the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) told Anadolu while chanting anti-government slogans while carrying a national flag.

BNP leaders accused the Awami League government at the rally of collapsing every service sector in the country, including energy, through massive corruption and gross irregularities.

The United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency reported Saturday that Dhaka has alone been experiencing more than 600 MW (Megawatt) of load shedding during the daytime hours, citing official sources at the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

Regarding other parts of the country, it said Bangladesh has been seeing more than 2,000 MW of power shortage daily.

As a result, consumers are facing power outages for six to seven hours during the day, it said.

To relieve Bangladeshis from the power crisis and price hikes of daily commodities, BNP leaders demanded that Hasina step down and hand power to a nonpartisan caretaker government to run the country with good governance after assuming power through a free, fair and participatory election.

"Our prime demand now is to topple this corrupted, vote-rigging, and fascist Hasina government and restore democracy in the country," BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told the rally.

The Awami League party high-ups, including Hasina, rejected the demand for a caretaker government system addressing it as unconstitutional, indicating huge political unrest ahead of the country’s national elections likely to be held in December or January.