DHAKA, Nov 20: A transport blockade aimed at forcing controversial election officials to step down or be removed began taking hold across Bangladesh on Monday, just days after the previous blockade caused havoc.
Witnesses said hundreds of activists of a 14-party alliance led by Sheikh Hasina, chief of Awami League, squatted on highways linking Dhaka with Chittagong city and other main towns.
Police and the elite Rapid Action Battalion watched the chanting protesters but did not try to disperse them, the witnesses said.
“We are facing a bigger law-and-order challenge today as both sides are massing their men on the streets,” a police officer told Reuters, referring to the Awami League and rival Bangladesh National Party. But there were no reports of violence.
Two people were killed and hundreds injured during the previous stoppage last week.
The crippling blockades are organised by the 14-party alliance, which is determined to boot out the poll officials ahead of national elections in January.
The alliance accuses the election commissioners of being biased towards Hasina's rivals, particularly the BNP and its leader Begum Khaleda Zia.
Police ordered an indefinite ban on carrying of weapons and sticks during rallies or demonstrations in Dhaka and other main cities from Monday.
LAST-MINUTE MEETINGS: Late on Sunday, Hasina and her party's general secretary, Abdul Jalil, met President Iajuddin Ahmed but the gathering failed to soothe the annoyed alliance.
“A fresh countrywide indefinite transport blockade will be enforced from 7 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Monday as the president failed to take any step to reorganise the election commission,”
Mr Jalil later told reporters.
“We will not accept any election schedule without reforms,”
Jalil quoted Hasina as telling the president. Advisers of the interim government also met the president on Sunday night.
BLAST: A small bomb has hurled from a moving vehicle and exploded on Monday near an entrance to the Bangladeshi presidential palace in Dhaka, police officials said.
No one was injured in the explosion which happened close to a rarely-used gate of the official building.
“The bomb exploded outside the southern gate of the Bangabhavan (the presidential palace) just 10 minutes after the president left the palace from another gate,” a police officer said.
“The bomb was thrown from a moving vehicle. It was a small bomb and no one was injured,” said another officer.—Reuters/AFP
DHAKA, Nov 20: A transport blockade aimed at forcing controversial election officials to step down or be removed began taking hold across Bangladesh on Monday, just days after the previous blockade caused havoc.
