DHAKA, 3 July 2006 — A police officer and an opposition leader were killed and more than 300 suffered injuries in Bangladesh as the strike called by the opposition turned violent.
Clashes were reported in several cities as supporters of a 14-party opposition alliance blockaded highways, trains and ferries to press for the reforms ahead of nationwide polls in January 2007.
Millions were left stranded across the country as the government deployed thousands of extra police and paramilitaries to try and keep a lid on the chaos.
The police officer was killed after being pelted with stones and hit by stick-wielding activists in Sonargaon, near Dhaka.
Awami League leader Golam Mustafa Milan was killed in the capital and 100 people were hurt. The opposition Awami League said the man had been hit by a rubber bullet but police said he was killed in a stampede. More than a dozen people were injured in the violent protests around the bus station, police said.
Dozens of vehicles and a train were damaged as drivers tried to defy the blockade, witnesses said. A police van was burned in the old part of Dhaka. The Awami League said police provoked violence by using force to break the “peaceful” blockade. The shutdown ended at 3 p.m. (0900 GMT). “The shutdown was total and demonstrated growing public support for our anti-government campaign,” said Tofayel Ahmed, a senior Awami League leader. “We will soon declare a fresh program including nationwide strikes.” Authorities deployed more than 8,000 extra police and paramilitary troops in the capital to try to avert trouble.
In the Mograpara area of the city a police officer was killed after being hit by stones hurled by protesters, local police chief Shabuddin Khan said.
“We have arrested more than a dozen protesters in connection with this (incident),” Khan said, adding that several people, including policemen, were injured in separate clashes on the country’s main southeast highway. Doctors at the Dhaka Medical College said they had treated nearly 50 people injured in the protests. “Among them, a police officer was admitted with serious head injury,” said duty doctor Golam Mustafa.
Another Awami League official was seriously injured after he was run over by a police van while leading a march to a Dhaka bus station, said an AFP photographer who witnessed the incident. In the northern town of Pabna at least 14 people were injured when police used batons to try and control opposition protesters, private ATN television said.
And at the other end of the country, in the town of Bagerhat, at least 30 people were injured after police clashed with protesters blocking highway traffic, including passenger buses, the private NTV channel said.
Buses are the main mode of transportation in the country of 140 million people.
“The protesters have blocked the main highway connecting Dhaka to southern districts. We’ve suspended all our bus services,” said Mohammad Yunus, the manager of Sohag, Bangladesh’s largest bus operator.
In the main port city of Chittagong, transportation of goods was suspended, but there was no violence, police chief Mazedul Haq said. The Awami League and its allies have held frequent protests in the past two months to demand the removal of the country’s chief election commissioner and his two deputies.
