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Bangladesh Lifts Emergency Rule, Orders Early Army Deployment

by Sanjay Jha | December 16, 2008 at 09:28 pm

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Even though army backed Bangladesh government lifted the state-of-emergency, the army has ordered an early deployment of troops across the country amid fears that Islamist militants may seek to create security problems ahead of the landmark parliamentary elections this month.

The interim government has lifted a two year state of emergency ahead of the general election on 29th December.

President Iajuddin Ahmed signed the order earlier in the week.

The lifting of emergency restrictions had been a key demand of the two main political parties.

Full campaigning began last Thursday with Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) taking on the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina.

Both women are former prime ministers. They have both faced corruption allegations and were released on bail in deals with the government to ensure their parties took part in the elections.

The army has been brought out of barracks to thwart any kind of political related violence. However, Interim government has said that they fear terrorist attacks and troops have been deployed to prevent any law and order problem.

"We have decided to deploy the troops on December 20 instead of December 24 on the basis of reports that there is possibility that law and order might deteriorate," Election Commissioner Brigadier (retd) Sakhawat Hossain told reporters.

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KaushiK™

at 23:46 on December 16th, 2008

I visited Dhaka just after emergency was imposed, in 2006, and also last year in April. People seemed to be very comfortable about going out of the constitutional norms and keeping their country away from democratic government for 2 yrs.

The 2 yrs' emergency was pre-determined, I recollect one advisor to the government said that "Elections will be held before the year 2008 is over and out", this was said in 2006 December! It was then already understood that they already prepared a "to do" list in this 2 yrs time frame.

However, it's better as soon as the elections are held, it is equally important for India as well, that the neighbour gets a democratically elected government soon.

jeremychoi

at 20:16 on December 19th, 2008

During September 2008, a medical group from Loma Linda was sent out to a remote region in Bangladesh, named Jalchatra.

The group was comprised of dentists, dental students, physicians, and an optometrist. The group of 50 strong were able to treat an average of 500 people a day, at no cost to the patients.

However, many more were not treated as they waited to enter the facility at this gate entrance. The admitted patients were based on a first come first serve as well as emergency priority. Gated out by a steel fence and barbed wire, many waited hours just to be turned down.

jeremychoi has contributed a photo to this story.