DHAKA, 18 June — Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia was forced to abandon a trip to the southwest of the country yesterday after her motorcade came under fire twice.
Her Bangladesh Nationalist Party said several shots were fired at Mrs. Zia’s jeep but the bullets hit the vehicle of the security staff injuring three people when the motorcade was passing through Munshiganj district in the morning. The convoy came under attack again after crossing a river, party sources said.
“This is a murderous government... they wanted to kill me,” a visibly angry Mrs. Zia said of the attack from her official residence in Dhaka.
Bangladesh police arrested three suspects yesterday after a bomb killed 22 people at a ruling Awami League meeting. Fifteen people died at the scene of Saturday night’s bombing in Narayanganj, 15 km (nine miles) east of the capital. Nearly 40 were critically injured and seven have died in hospital.
Police said one of the arrested, Shamsul Alam Liton, was a newspaper reporter and allegedly an armed member of the small right-wing Freedom Party. Police identified another of the arrested, Shah Alam, as an activist of Mrs. Zia’s BNP. The third was described as a female factory worker.
Prime Minister Hasina Wajed blamed her opponents for the attack, described by police as the worst in Bangladesh’s history. She accused her opponents of trying to disrupt democracy in the run-up to an election campaign. “They are engaged in politics of blood. They are threatening to stage a repeat of 1975,” she told parliament. Her father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was killed in a 1975 coup with other family members.
Ms. Hasina will seek re-election in October after her five-year term ends on July 13. Her main challenger is Mrs. Zia, a former prime minister.
The BNP called for a two-day general strike in protest from tomorrow, its secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan told a news conference. He called for a “proper judicial inquiry” into the bombing.
Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad said Saturday’s blast was the work of “religious extremists” linked to international terrorism.
