DHAKA, 9 September 2003 — The main opposition party in Bangladesh enforced a total shutdown yesterday crippling the southern port city of Khulna, reeling after recent political assassinations and street violence at the weekend.
The Awami League, the biggest political rival to the ruling Nationalist-Islamist coalition, called the strike overnight to protest a fatal bomb attack on a prominent opposition activist.
Quamrul Islam Tuku, 50, died instantaneously and 13 other political workers were injured in the Saturday night blast inside the local office of the Awami League in downtown Khulna.
Tuku, a political campaigner for the Awami League, was given a quiet burial on the outskirts of Khulna on Sunday amid mounting tension in the second biggest business city in the south of the country.
The latest suspected political killing follows a fatal grenade attack on Khulna city Awami League leader Manjurul Imam and two companions two-weeks ago.
Awami League leader and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has blamed both murders on alleged armed activists of the coalition government. Authorities denied the charges.
Witnesses said Tuku was killed in the blast after an explosive device was hurled into the local office of the Awami League by unidentified assailants.
Khulna, located 390 kilometers south of the capital Dhaka, has been plagued by frequent shutdowns and a wave of political murders.
Tit-for-tat killings by supporters of the government and those of the opposition have plunged Khulna into turmoil, observers said.
It was on Aug. 25 that the Awami League’s local president, Imam, was gunned down in an attack that also killed a fellow lawyer and a rickshaw puller who was transporting them.
