Strike cripples Bangladesh

BANGLADESH: At least 10,000 policemen were on the streets of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka to boost security Sunday as a nationwide strike called by the main opposition party brought the country to a standstill.

Thousands of Bangladesh Nationalist Party activists were staging protests over the eviction of BNP leader and former two-time Premier Khaleda Zia from her home Saturday, a move that set off late-night riots.

Shops, businesses and schools were closed in all the major cities and towns across the country on Sunday and police said road transport in Dhaka and major cities has almost ground to a halt.

Inter-district bus services have also been cut, snapping links between the capital and other cities and towns and stranding millions of people who planned to visit village homes to celebrate Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

Opposition activists demonstrated outsidte BNP headquarters and several other sites in the city but there has been no report of violence, Dhaka police chief Benajir Ahmed told AFP.

“The strike has been largely peaceful. We have deployed over 10,000 policemen in the city’s strategic places to maintain security,” he said, adding some 2,000 members of elite Rapid Action Battalion have also been deployed.

Ahmed said at least 21 people have been arrested on Saturday night after opposition activists rioted in the capital, attacking police and torching and damaging dozens of vehicles.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the supporters who went on the rampage after news spread that Zia has been evicted from Dhaka cantonment house where she has been living for more than three decades.

Officials said Zia left the sprawling house, leased to her by the government after her husband president Ziaur Rahman was murdered in 1981, “willingly” as a court deadline to vacate the home expired Friday.

Dhaka, Sunday, AFP