Archives

DHAKA, Sunday (Reuters)

Bangladesh imposed tight security amid fears of violence as an opposition-led countrywide general strike took hold early on Sunday.

The strike, called after a Friday mob attack on a convoy of cars carrying opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, coincides with the anniversary celebrations of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which the opposition has blamed for the attack.

"The situation is very tense and could turn violent if the activists of the rival parties faced down during the strike," one police officer said. "We are on a high alert." Police patrolled streets of capital Dhaka with paramilitary troops on standby as the strike shut most transport, schools, businesses and many offices. Brokers said trading on the country's two stock exchanges in Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong were likely to be suspended. Handling and delivery of cargo at the Chittagong port, which handles 80 percent of Bangladesh's external trade, would also be disrupted, port officials said.

The main opposition party Awami League called the strike to protest the Friday mob attack on the convoy of cars carrying former prime minister Hasina and some of her colleagues. No one was injured in the attack, which Hasina's political secretary Saber Hossain Chowdhury said was pre-planned and carried out by activists of the BNP.

The BNP, headed by Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, dismissed the allegation, saying the strike was intended to disrupt the BNP's founding anniversary celebrations on Sunday. "The strike is a sinister move to disrupt BNP's founding anniversary," party secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan told reporters. He asked party activists and supporters to carry on planned programmes.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager