Bangladesh deploys army ahead of controversial January 5 polls

The EC earlier decided to call out the troops but the announcement to deploy them came after suspected activists of BNP and its fundamentalist ally Jamaat-e-Islami hurled crude bombs on a police van and injured nine policemen in Rajshahi.  

“Two of the wounded constables received injuries in their head...they are being treated in an intensive care unit of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital,” police official Ziaur Rahman told media.

Unidentified persons also set ablaze the office of the chief executive of Laksam sub-district in central Comilla.  

Officials said no one was injured in the pre-dawn attack.  

The political violence has escalated since the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance refused to take part in the elections after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina spurned its demands to quit and install a neutral caretaker government to oversee the polls.