DHAKA: Police used batons and fired tear gas at thousands of stone-throwing anti-government protesters who tried to march on the Prime Minister’s Office in Dhaka on Wednesday, police and witnesses said.

About 15,000 protesters tried to overrun police barricades in Dhaka’s western Dhanmandi district, just blocks from the office of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.

Dozens of people were injured as protesters clashed with police, the reporter said, although it was not immediately clear how many people were hurt or how badly.

A group of retreating protesters broke into the residence of ruling party lawmaker Harunur Rashid, smashing furniture and windows, witnesses said. Rashid, who is also a minister without portfolio, was not home at the time, they said.

Clashes were reported in at least three other parts of the capital as protesters tried to break through police barricades to reach the office of the prime minister, whom they accuse of corruption and incompetence.

Security forces had to use tear gas when the crowd became violent and started attacking them, said a police officer at the scene, who can not be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media. He did not provide further details.

The opposition claimed at least 50 activists were injured in the city’s Bangla Motor area after police used batons to disperse them, according to an opposition statement.

“Police attack our supporters without any provocation,” said Mohammad Nasim, an opposition spokesman.

Bangladesh’s main opposition Awami League and its 13 allies called the protest to demand electoral reforms and the resignation of the government.

The authorities earlier banned the protest fearing violence and ordered police to close all roads leading to the prime minister’s office.

More than 5,000 police and paramilitary troops were ordered to man dozens of barbed-wire barricades erected to keep the protesters away. The barricades were put blocks away from the Prime Minister’s Office, which is located at Dhaka’s Tejgaon district.

Thousands of opposition activists marched toward their target from all parts of the city before being stopped by the barricades.

The opposition alliance accuses the government of influencing the country’s election commission in a bid to win the next general election due early 2007.—AP