Bangladesh opposition says to return to parliament

DHAKA: Bangladesh's main opposition party will return to parliament after a year-long boycott, its leader announced at a rally to mark the end of a three-day march by party supporters to the capital.

Sheikh Hasina said her Awami League would end its boycott of parliament because it wanted its voice heard on national issues including the emergence of Muslim militancy that has led to a wave of bomb attacks.

Tens of thousands of activists participated in the march, defying police barricades and what they said were attacks by pro-government activists.

"This overwhelming participation shows that the people no longer want to see this corrupt, inefficient and oppressive government in power," Hasina, a former prime minister, told cheering supporters at Dhaka's Paltan Ground.

The government blames outlawed Islamist groups Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh for a wave of bomb attacks that have killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 since August.Hasina and her allies accuse the Islamic partners of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's coalition government of harbouring and protecting the militants, a charge the government denies.

The Awami League announced mass rallies for Wednesday and a general strike on Feb. 15 to protest inadequate supplies of power and water and the police killing last month of eight people near the town of Chapainawabganj in western Bangladesh.

The march was the latest stage in a campaign to force Khaleda Zia to resign before a general election in January 2007 over accusations of corruption and failure to govern.

On Sunday, nearly 15,000 police and special forces barricaded entry points to Dhaka but the marchers pushed their way through and police did not use force, witnesses said..-Dhaka, Monday (Reuters)