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| Monday, 1 March 2004 |
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Over 200 arrested as fourth strike in a month hits Bangladesh DHAKA, Sunday (AFP) More than 200 "troublemakers" have been arrested in Bangladesh, police and witnesses said, as the fourth anti-government strike called by the main opposition party this month was marked by violent clashes. Several people were injured in brief confrontations between police and protestors in the river port city of Narayanganj, near the capital Dhaka, NTV television network said. In another incident, it said 10 passengers were injured when a bus came under attack in southwestern Gopalganj district, bastion of opposition Awami League party leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed. Police said they had arrested what they described as "troublemakers" to ensure the safety of the citizens during the strike in major Bangladeshi cities, including the capital Dhaka and the second city of Chittagong. Witnesses and political parties said more than 200 people had been rounded up since late Friday. The strike forced the closure of shops, schools and most private banks and offices in Dhaka Saturday. Most public buses were not running, while groups of protesters gathered in different parts of the capital. Witnesses said pickets were also being staged in various parts of Chittagong. Authorities said some 7,000 police, including paramilitary units, were being deployed to keep order during Saturday's strike in Dhaka, a congested city of around 10 million people. "We will not step down a single day before our term ends. If the opposition wants to force us out by calling strikes, they are pursuing an unachievable mission," Prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia told a rally in Dhaka. The next elections are not due before October 2006. Officials said Saturday's strike lost some of its steam after authorities ordered police to act firmly to control unruly mobs and resist any major showdown by the opposition. Awami chief Sheikh Hasina said on Friday she would call for more strikes unless Khaleda, about half way through her five-year term, called early elections.Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, secretary-general of Khaleda's ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), accused Awami of telling lies and spreading false allegations. Bangladeshis should remain alert to the opposition's goal of causing anarchy and halting economic progress, he said. Business leaders, who say each day of a general strike costs Bangladesh $60 million, have urged politicians to spare the economy from their political arguments. The opposition has called three one-day general strikes since February 12. The opposition said an attack on one of Bangladesh's leading literary figures, Dr Humayun Azad, near Dhaka University on Friday night showed the government could not protect even prominent personalities. Azad, an author and senior teacher at the university, was in a critical condition after he was attacked with choppers and home-made bombs as he walked out of a book fair, police said. |
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