DHAKA, 9 April 2004 — Clashes, bomb blasts and arrests in the capital marked the second day of the two-day general strike called by the opposition, but the call for a complete shutdown was largely ignored.
At least 20 people were injured when police used batons to disperse a students’ rally taken out from the Jagannat University College in the afternoon.
Police also arrested more than a dozen Awami League workers, including women activists, from Dhanmondi and outside Dhaka University.
The shutdown — for 11 hours beginning at 6 a.m. on the first day on Wednesday and for 12 hours yesterday — was called separately by Awami League and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal to press the government to hold snap elections.
Police picked up 11 workers, including Juba Mohila League leader Nazma Akhtar, from Dhanmondi and three female activists, including Arpana, joint secretary of Dhaka University unit of Bangladesh Chattra League, from the Dhaka University campus area in the morning.
Police also arrested three people after two bomb blasts at Syedabad rail crossing in the afternoon.
Awami League leaders Tofail Ahmed and Begum Matia Chowdhury led the protest in front of the party’s central office.
Awami League MPs, led by opposition chief whip Abdus Shahid, brought out a procession and staged a sit-in near Dhanmondi Road 32.
At Dholaikhal in old Dhaka, police chased pro-strike elements when they tried to bring out a procession in the area.
Reports from Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal said the general strike was by and large peaceful.
In Dhaka city, most shops, business establishments, shopping complexes, schools and private offices were open while buses and trucks, although few in numbers, plied on the roads.
A huge number of rickshaws plied during the general strike. Officials said train and air services were normal.
Authorities had deployed some 8,000 riot police and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troops at strategic points in the capital to avert any violence. Troops were deployed at natural gas and power stations at the country’s main southeastern Chittagong Port and at a nearby oil refinery.
A spokesman for the government’s Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate said the troop deployment at key installations was “made to assist the civil administration.” The spokesman declined to elaborate.
The opposition has called on the government to quit, accusing it of failing to tackle rampant crime and corruption. The government says it inherited a bad law and order situation from the previous Awami League government.
The strikes have prompted representatives of the United Nations and the US and British governments to voice alarm over growing political turmoil in the South Asian nation.
