DHAKA, 20 November 2006 — Bangladeshis are fleeing the capital Dhaka ahead of a countrywide transport blockade that begins today, the second in less than a week. Schools are trying to finish annual tests, banks are working extra hours, while many are buying tickets out of Dhaka, witnesses said. Even weddings are being rushed.
A Dhaka community center said it had received several requests to speed up the bookings for wedding parties that had been scheduled for next Thursday and Friday.
“The country is up for another crippling shutdown of buses, trains and ferries - and also for violence that could be widespread,” a senior police officer said yesterday.
Two people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes with police and between rival activists during the previous stoppage.
The crippling blockades are organized by a 14-party alliance determined to boot out poll officials ahead of national elections in January.
The alliance is led by Hasina Wajed, chief of the Awami League, who accuses the election officials of being biased toward her rivals, particularly the Bangladesh National Party and its leader Khaleda Zia. Several students were injured in clashes on Sunday between supporters of Hasina and Khaleda at Dhaka University, police said.
Authorities earlier extended a campus holiday and suspended all examinations at the 50,000-student university until Nov. 26 because of the volatile political situation, officials said.
Khaleda stepped down last month at the end of her five-year term and the country is now being run by an interim administration headed by the president.
Hasina believes her alliance will win January’s parliamentary election if the poll officials step aside.
During Khaleda’s term, Hasina and her alliance led dozens of nationwide strikes and protests. Last week’s four-day blockade shut everything from schools to ports for four days.
Abdur Rouf and his ailing father were among the many fleeing Dhaka yesterday. He whisked his father out of hospital and boarded a bus out of the city.
“I cannot really wait and see what happens,” said Rouf, who came from the eastern district of Brahmanbaria after doctors referred his father to Dhaka for better treatment. “We must go back while the roads are open,” he told Reuters. The BNP and ally Jamaat-e-Islami party called for rallies in the capital and other cities yesterday to demonstrate their “resolve to counter the Awami League offensive, including the transport blockade.” Witnesses said thousands of chanting activists marched into the capital to join the rally.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to break the political deadlock President Iajuddin Ahmed proposed the appointment of two new election commissioners. The move is being seen as his last-ditch effort to end the impasse between the two major parties over reconstitution of the Election Commission.
The proposal came after Khaleda met Iajuddin at his office in the evening. An official earlier yesterday said Ahmed will offer a solution to end the standoff.
An alliance of opposition parties want the interim government appointed to oversee elections to sack Chief Election Commissioner M.A. Aziz whom it accuses of favoring the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government.
The president and head of the temporary government Iajuddin will reveal his solution to the deadlock in a televised address in the next few days, interim Cabinet member Mahbubul Alam said yesterday.
