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| Friday, 13 February 2004 |
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Opposition protesters hurt in Bangladesh strike DHAKA, Thursday (Reuters) At least 25 people, including senior opposition politicians, were wounded when Bangladeshi police used batons and teargas to disperse protesters in Dhaka during a day-long strike on Thursday, witnesses said. Among those hurt was a former minister, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, who was taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital after he fell unconscious during police action in the capital, they said. "They beat us inhumanly, many were injured seriously," said Asaduzzaman Noor, a member of parliament from the opposition Awami League party, which called Thursday's dawn-to-dusk, country-wide strike. The strike was intended to force early elections, which otherwise are not due before October 2006. Transport and business were disrupted and authorities deployed more than 5,000 police in Dhaka, a city of 10 million people, in an effort to head off violence. Police said they took action after protesters threw stones at them but Noor blamed the police. "They started the violence," Noor said. "They attacked a peaceful protest rally on the street and came heavily down on us." He said 10 women were among those hurt. The Awami League, the country's biggest opposition party, called the strike to mobilise support in a campaign to topple Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and force early elections. Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party has rejected the call for early elections and Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury told parliament on Wednesday the strike would be "strictly dealt with to protect lives and property". Soon after his speech, suspected opposition activists set fire to a bus and three other vehicles and smashed the windows of several others, police and witnesses said. Awami chief Sheikh Hasina asked her followers to observe the strike "without fear" and warned the government that any attempt to foil the strike would be matched by calls for more strikes. |
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