Bangladesh has deployed border guards to help maintain order, a senior official said on Saturday (March 27th) after deadly protests from a radical Islamic group opposed to a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The violence that erupted Friday at Dhaka's main mosque spread to several districts of the predominantly Muslim South Asian country with a population of 168 million.
Violent clashes between the police and demonstrators left five protesters dead and many injured.
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Access to Facebook has been restricted in the country, a company spokesperson noted, following complaints from several customers who are no longer able to connect.
Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said his institution was not responsible and that it was up to law enforcement agencies to inform about the measures adopted.
"
By order of the Minister of the Interior and to help the civil administration, the necessary number of border guards have been deployed in different districts of the country,
" Lieutenant-Colonel Fayzur Rahman told AFP, without revealing the number of soldiers involved.
He added that this deployment was not followed by violence.
“
The situation is normal
”.
The violent protests come as Bangladesh celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence, with the government touting the country's economic successes - overshadowed by human rights groups by rights violations, according to human rights groups.
The visit of Indian nationalist Narendra Modi, who arrived in Dhaka on Friday on the occasion of this anniversary, has been welcomed for several days by demonstrators who accuse him of exacerbating communitarianism in India.
They accuse him of having incited the anti-Muslim violence which killed a thousand people in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, while he was the head of that state.
Four victims of Friday's clashes are members of the Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam, and the violence took place in Hathazari, a small rural town where the group's main leaders are based.
The group called for nationwide protests on Saturday and a strike on Sunday to denounce the actions of the police who, according to it, fired at "
peaceful
"
protesters
.
Hefazat is known for having a nationwide network and for organizing mass protests demanding the passage of laws criminalizing blasphemy.
