B'desh secures PM office on opposition siege threat

BANGLADESH: Thousands of riot police sealed off roads leading to the office of Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia on Wednesday as opposition activists prepared to besiege it in their attempt make her accept their demands.

Police also threw a tight security ring around the office complex in capital Dhaka's Tejgaon area as authorities banned rallies and marches within a 5 km (3 miles) radius.

Security forces kept a watchful eye on opposition activists as they began gathering at 15 points in the sprawling city of 10 million for the big march, adding to fears that the volatile country was headed for a new political crisis.

"We will start the march any moment and defy the police ban," said Tofayel Ahmed, a former minister and senior leader of the main opposition party Awami League.

"We called for the siege ... to demonstrate our anger over years of her (Khaleda's) misrule and to put pressure on her to accept our demands," he added.

Opposition demands include reform of the electoral system, reduction in prices of essential commodities and improvement in supply of electricity and water.

Bangladesh has been rocked in recent months by a series of Islamist bomb attacks, including suicide bombings. At least 30 people have been killed and 150 wounded since August.

Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Sheikh Hasina's Awami League disagree on the inclusion of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party in hoped-for talks on electoral reforms.

Fears of a new political crisis heightened as the Awami League refused to sit down to talks with a government Islamist coalition partner and at least 50 people were injured in clashes between police and opposition activists in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Khaleda said on Tuesday that the opposition plans were aimed at creating chaos and lawlessness in the country, which she claimed was faring well on all fronts under her leadership.

The opposition has called for countrywide general strike on Thursday.

Earlier the Dhaka Metropolitan Police imposed the 24-hour ban to maintain a "peaceful atmosphere and public safety" in and around the Prime Minister's Office, police commissioner S.M. Mizanur Rahman said in a statement.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Sheikh Hasina directed thousands of activists who rallied at a soccer field in downtown Dhaka to attend Wednesday's demonstration.

The opposition alliance would mobilize the protesters to seize the Prime Minister's Office, said Hasina, herself a former prime minister.

She said the government is using the police administration to crush the "democratic movement" of the political opponents.

"Our movement is to ensure people's right to vote," she told the rally.

The opposition alliance accuses the government of influencing the country's election commission in a bid to win the next general election.

They demand the resignation of three of the five commissioners for allegedly trying to create new voter lists that would favor the ruling coalition. Dhaka, Wednesday, Reuters, AP