Paramilitaries deployed for mass Bangladesh rallies

DHAKA: Bangladesh deployed paramilitary border guards in major cities Friday after the opposition called mass protests to force the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and order polls under a caretaker government.

Tensions have been rising since Hasina's ruling Awami League (AL) party rejected an October 24 deadline set by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for accepting its demands.

The AL instead called on its activists to take to the streets to face off the opposition.

BNP leader and two times ex-premier Khaleda Zia said the government was "illegal" as of Friday, citing a legal provision that requires a neutral caretaker government to be set up three months before general elections, slated for January 2014.

But the ruling AL abolished the provision in 2011, instead handing the job of overseeing polls to a reformed Election Commission.

Police said several thousands of supporters had already converged at the Suhrawardy Udyan, a national memorial in central Dhaka where Zia was scheduled to speak later.

"We're expecting at least a million people in the rally," said BNP spokesman Rizvi Ahmed.

The government has deployed thousands of police and paramilitary border guards in the capital Dhaka, in the port city of Chittagong where the ruling party has called a rival rally, and other potential flashpoints.

"We've sent BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) troops to 20 major cities and towns," BGB director colonel Hafiz Ahsan told.

"So far we don't have any report of violence," deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Maruf Hossain told.

While it has a long history of political violence, this year has been the deadliest since Bangladesh gained independence in 1971.

At least 150 people have been killed since January after a controversial court began handing down death sentences to leaders allied to ex-premier Zia.