DHAKA, 6 May 2006 — More than 100 people, including a ruling party lawmaker and 10 policemen, were wounded in clashes in Bangladesh yesterday after police tried to break up a protest over shortage of drinking water and electricity, police and witnesses said.

Police fired tear gas shells and used batons to evict thousands of people squatting on a highway linking the capital Dhaka with the port city of Chittagong, demanding adequate power supplies to run their irrigation pumps.

A witness said a local legislator, Mohammad Salahuddin, tried to persuade the protesters to end their sit-in on the highway, but he was jeered away by a stone-throwing crowd.

“The people have just gone wild and are attacking anyone coming on their way,” said a police officer.

The violence spread when activists of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) launched sporadic attacks on the protesters, witnesses said.

An unspecified number of vehicles including several air-conditioned passenger buses were damaged in stone-throwing incidents, they said.

A highway police outpost was attacked and burned. The protesters ignited bonfires on several spots on the highway. Ten policemen, including a senior officer, were injured.

Authorities have largely withdrawn police from the spot, apparently to defuse the anger of the protesters.

“It is not often possible to restore order when everyone turns unruly,” another police officer said. “We hope the situation will gradually calm down by nightfall,” he said.

Most areas in Bangladesh including Dhaka remain without power supply for several hours every day.

There is also a shortage of clean drinking water in the capital city of 10 million and most other parts of the country.

At least 20 people have been killed since January in clashes with police in the northwestern area of Kanshat, which has emerged as a focal point of the protests against power shortages. The total nationwide power generation is 3,000 megawatts against demand of 4,500 megawatts, an official of the state-owned Power Development Board said.

Out of Bangladesh’s nearly 60 power generation plants, 25 were out of operation due to mechanical faults, the official said.

Dhaka Busts Human Trafficking Ring

Bangladesh’s paramilitary frontier guards busted a human trafficking ring, rescuing at least 34 women and children from being smuggled across the border into India, local officials said yesterday.

Sources in the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) said 24 women and 10 children were freed from the clutches of the traffickers overnight as they were being shepherded into boats for crossing the bordering Padma river.

BDR border troops Thursday detained five alleged traffickers at a remote river landing post in the Rajshahi region about 390 kilometers northwest of the capital Dhaka.

The women and children, some as young as five-years-old, were brought by the traffickers from four neighborhood districts with false promises of lucrative jobs in India.

But they are mostly forced into prostitution as they illegally enter India, said Adhikar, a local non-government charity for children from poor families. Bangladesh and India share a porous land border running for over 4,000 kilometers.

Frequent meetings are held between the officials of the two countries on ways to check the human trade and other cross border crimes.