DHAKA, 22 September 2005 — Hundreds of opposition activists took to the streets yesterday to enforce an anti-government strike to protest soaring commodity prices.
Schools and stores were closed in Dhaka and more than 60 other cities and towns, police said. Most trains and ferries operated, but long-distance buses were off the roads, fearing attacks by strike organizers.
Baton-wielding police clashed with demonstrators in the capital yesterday, as schools and stores shut their doors and public transportation was disrupted nationwide by a general strike called to protest fuel price hikes. Dozens of activists marched through the streets shouting “Down with the government,” and “Price hikes kill the poor.”
Police in riot gear guarded barbed-wire barricades near the central office of Awami League, in Dhaka to prevent party activists from staging street protests.
Clashes broke out in central Dhaka’s Dhanmandi district when riot police tried to stop about 200 protesters from parading through the streets. Police swung batons to break up the demonstrators who responded by throwing rocks at them, reporters at the scenes said.
Several protesters were injured in the clashes, while police also detained about a dozen demonstrators. Awami League and 13 other parties called the strike to protest rising prices of food and fuel, and the government’s failure to tackle militants blamed for serial bomb blasts last month.
The streets of Dhaka were largely empty yesterday, with most shops closed and few private cars to be seen. Cycle and motorized rickshaws ferried some people to work, while trains and ferries moved on schedule but with few passengers.
In Chittagong, the country’s main port was partially idled by the strike, officials said. Schools and shops were mostly closed.
The country has been frequently shut down by opposition-led general strikes since Prime Minister Khaleda Zia took power in October 2001, defeating her predecessor Hasina Wajed, chief of Awami League.
The Awami League and its allies have accused the government of patronizing Islamist groups responsible for a series of bombings that rattled the country Aug. 17.
“Prices of commodities are out of reach of ordinary people,” former water resources minister and senior Awami League leader Abdur Razzak told a knot of around 100 people gathered at a road junction in the blazing sun.
Razzak accused an Islamic party within the ruling coalition of being behind last month’s bomb attacks, when 500 or so small bombs exploded simultaneously around the country, killing two people and wounding about 100.
“We know who is behind the bombings,” he told the crowd. “They have worked under the instructions of Jamaat-e-Islami. The government wants to divert the investigation because Jamaat-e-Islami were involved.”
Police have arrested more than 300 suspects, most from two outlawed militant groups. Leaflets found at most bombsites carried a call the radical Jamatul Mujahedeen for introduction of Islamic rule in Bangladesh.
— Additional input from agencies.
