Police fire tear gas at portrait protesters

Riot police today fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who were demonstrating against the repeal of a law requiring public buildings display a portrait of Bangladesh’s founding father.

At least 15 people were injured in the violence.

Police detained former government ministers Motia Chowdhury and Saber Hossain Chowdhury, and actor-turned-lawmaker Asaduzzman Noor.

The violence erupted after about 500 protesters tried to overrun barbed-wire barricades blocking entrances to Osmany Uddayan Park, where former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party had planned to hold a hunger strike.

Thousands of security troops were deployed in and around the park, next to a building that houses government ministries.

The protesters were demonstrating against the scrapping by Parliament on Thursday of a law requiring the portrait of the nation’s first leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to be displayed in schools and government buildings.

The law was passed last year by the previous government headed by Hasina, who is Rahman’s daughter.

Rahman led an independence war against Pakistan to found Bangladesh in 1971, and ran the country until he was killed in a military coup in 1975. Critics say his authoritarian rule tarnished his image as the country’s founding father.

Hasina’s Awami League has boycotted Parliament since losing a general election on October 1 to a four-party coalition led by current Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.