DHAKA, 12 March 2004 — A mob hurled stones and bricks at former Bangladeshi President Badruddoza Chowdhury yesterday, preventing him from holding a rally where he was due to launch a group offering voters a “third way.”
The unidentified attackers estimated at around 100 pelted the 72-year-old Chowdhury with stones and bricks as he spoke to several hundred supporters on a major thoroughfare while making his way on foot to the rally site.
Witnesses said Chowdhury and several of his associates were attacked by groups of stick-wielding people as they tried to gather several times along the city’s Muktangan Avenue, a popular venue for political rallies.
Chowdhury drove around the city looking for an alternate venue, but was unable to find one. Then he led a street march which also came under attack. While running for safety, Chowdhury fell, but was picked up by police and taken away. “This is very bad. A very undemocratic attitude of the government. They don’t represent the people anymore,” Chowdhury later told Reuters Television.
Chowdhury resigned as the country’s titular head last year over policy differences with Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). A former close associate of Khaleda, Chowdhury said he wanted to launch a “Bikalpa Dhara” or alternative platform yesterday to spread his own political views and unite “progressive” forces.
Authorities took an unexpectedly hard line after Chowdhury’s son, Mahi B. Chowdhury and retired army major Abdul Mannan — both members of Parliament — resigned from the BNP on Wednesday and joined the new forum.
Mannan said he quit because the BNP had “failed to govern as per expectations of those who voted it to power in 2001”. Mahi said he stepped out as the “BNP had moved away from ideals of late President Ziaur Rahman”, the party’s founder and husband of Khaleda Zia. BNP Secretary-General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said “one or two people leaving the BNP would do no harm to the party”.
Earlier, the site where the rally was to be held was overrun by members of “The Homeless People Group” who denounced a slew of opposition-called general strikes that have shut down the nation in the past month.
Chowdhury’s plans to form the group offering Bangladeshis a “third way” that observers expect to turn into a full-fledged party come amid mounting political unrest in the poverty-wracked South Asian nation.
The main opposition Awami League has been waging a sustained campaign to force the government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to call snap polls over what it says is its failure to tackle corruption and crime.
The attack on Chowdhury came after assailants hurled home-made bombs at his office overnight, without causing serious damage, and smashed a podium being made for the rally. Chowdhury blamed “youths and student supporters” of the ruling Bangladesh National Party (BNP) for taking over the rally site. No immediate comment was available from the BNP.
Police said they were investigating the bombing of Chowdhury’s office and were guarding the building.
Zia, who holds a two-thirds parliamentary majority, is facing a concerted campaign of strikes and protests by the Awami League led by Hasina Wajed to force her out of office. The prime minister has vowed to complete her five-year term that expires in 2006.
She has been locked in a bitter feud with Hasina who lost power in 2001. They were briefly allies when they ousted dictator Gen. Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1990 but have been rivals ever since.
Badruddoza Chowdhury warned last month Bangladesh might end up as a “failed state” unless mounting corruption and crime were tackled. He was forced to resign as president in 2002, months after being elected, amid threats of impeachment by the BNP after what he said were his attempts to uphold the neutrality of the office of president.
The BNP earlier dismissed Chowdhury’s remarks as the “outburst of an angry man.” It says it inherited a bad crime and corruption situation created by the opposition during its stint in power.
