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DHAKA : Some 60,000 soldiers have started deploying across Bangladesh to maintain security ahead of the disputed January 22 general elections, the home ministry said.
A spokesman said the deployment to all of Bangladesh's 64 districts and some 500 sub-districts would be completed later in the day.
The move, a regular feature of Bangladeshi election preparations, comes amid mounting protests and opposition plans to boycott the polls.
Rights groups have also criticised the deployment plan, saying army officers could abuse their power to arrest.
The opposition alliance, led by the Awami League, accuses the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of seeking to rig the polls by appointing biased officials and drawing up a voter list containing 14 million fake names.
The last three days have seen major clashes in the capital Dhaka, and opposition spokesman Abdul Jalil said Awami League leader and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed would announce new series of protests at a rally at Paltan Maidan in central Dhaka later Wednesday.
- AFP /ls
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