Dhaka, February 01: Demonstrators outside the Bangladesh’s capital burned down a police station during a protest on Monday against a planned new airport, officials said. At least one person was killed and dozens injured in clashes with police.
The protesters blocked a major highway in protest against the government plan to build the airport that villagers say will take away their lands and destroy a wetland, said local police chief Shafiqul Islam.
One policeman, the 45-year-old Motiur Rahman, died after he was taken to a hospital in the capital, Dhaka, Islam said.
The protesters set fire to a police station, smashed vehicles and blocked roads during today’s protest in Munshiganj district near Dhaka.
Islam said the violence prompted the security officials to fire rubber bullets and tear gas.
The government has started acquiring land for the planned Bangabandhu International Airport in the area. Villagers say they will lose homes and farmlands.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has planned the airport, which is to named after independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Rahman, who was Hasina’s father, was killed along with most of his family members in a coup in 1975 after Bangladesh won the independence from Pakistan in 1971.
—PTI