DHAKA, Oct 27: Six people were killed and over 200 injured in clashes between rival political activists across Bangladesh on Friday, as the prime minister prepared to hand over power to an interim administration before elections.
The opposition vowed to launch an indefinite transport blockade of the capital once the government transfers power to an interim administration that will oversee January elections.
“We will begin an indefinite siege programme to cut off communications with the rest of the country the moment the caretaker government takes over,” Abdul Jalil, secretary general of the Awami League, said.
Opposition parties took to the streets to protest the appointment of an interim government headed by a former supreme court chief justice who had once been a member of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), while the ruling party fought battles against members who had left to set up a new group.
Awami League supporters have vowed to paralyse the country if the government went ahead with its choice of K.M. Hasan as interim head to supervise the election in January.
Police said four men were killed in shootings or bomb attacks in Dhaka and other towns. Two women were run over by a speeding bus in the capital’s eastern suburbs.
The violence spread across the country after Prime Minister Khaleda Zia finished her farewell address to the nation on state television on Friday evening, when she called for peace after she stepped down on Saturday.
Protesters blocked a highway, cutting road links between the capital and southeastern port city of Chittagong.
Sporadic violence continued through the night in a dozen district towns, forcing police to fire teargas and rubber bullets to disperse mobs.
‘NO ELECTION’: “No election without electoral reform,” chanted opposition activists during demonstrations, armed with sticks and carrying replicas of the party symbol of boat.
The opposition urged President Iajuddin Ahmed not to swear in Mr Hasan ‘to save the country from a violent people’s outburst’.
But the ruling party dismissed the opposition threat.
“BNP is ready to tackle the opposition with its massive public support,” Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, secretary-general of the party, told a separate rally of party supporters in the capital.
Begum Khaleda’s hopes for a re-election may have been hurt after dozens of dissident BNP leaders, including ministers and lawmakers, on Thursday launched a new party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and vowed to fight against the premier.
BNP activists attacked and torched homes of the dissidents all over the country, triggering angry reaction from retired army colonel Oli Ahmed, a top leader of the LDP.
“We will take tooth for tooth and eye for eye if they (BNP militants) dare to launch more attacks on our men,” Mr Oli said.
Begum Khaleda, who is seeking a third term, appealed for calm.
“I urge all, including opposition parties, to maintain peace during the tenure of the caretaker government to ensure holding of a peaceful and credible election,” she said in her address.
Khaleda Zia, wife of assassinated president Ziaur Rahman, said the parties were trying to disrupt the country’s development.
“Five years in office, we have seen increasing foreign investment that testifies to the country’s growing image across the world,” she said.
Authorities have deployed extra police and the elite Rapid Action Battalion in Dhaka.
—Reuters