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Bangladesh hit by opposition strike to oust government
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-11-25 08:44
Several people were injured in clashes and business brought to a standstill
in Bangladesh during a nationwide general strike called by the opposition in a
fresh campaign to oust the Islamist-allied government.
Cars and buses were off the roads and schools and shops and private offices
in major cities were closed, police said. Transport to the main Chittagong
seaport was cut off as no inter-regional buses or trucks moved.
At least 10 strike supporters and seven policemen were injured in clashes
between police and opposition supporters in Dhaka, police said.
"A constable is fighting for his life in hospital after opposition activists
hurled a brick in his face," deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Mahbub Alam
told AFP.
The rest suffered minor injuries as police used batons to bring order after
protestors tried to lift barricades on a key street, he said. Police also
detained six opposition activists.
The general strike was part of a protest campaign announced Tuesday by a
14-party alliance led by the main opposition Awami League, aimed at forcing out
the four-party government.
Bangladesh opposition Awami League activists
shout before a police barricade in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 24,
2005.[AP] | The opposition accuses the government,
led by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, of fostering the rise of hardline Islamists.
Bangladesh has been shaken recently by a spate of blasts and killings blamed on
Islamic extremists who are seeking to impose strict religious law on the
Muslim-majority nation.
The government, which has a hefty majority in parliament and whose mandate
runs out in late 2006, says it is doing everything in its power to crack down on
Islamic radicals.
The strike followed a rally Tuesday in Dhaka that drew at least 100,000
demonstrators urging the government to "quit now".
"We've deployed over 9,000 troops in the city's main centres and in the
industrial areas to keep things peaceful," Dhaka metropolitan police
commissioner Mizanur Rahman told AFP.
Analysts and businesses warned that continued strikes would deal a blow to
the economy, already shaken by a big increase in global oil and commodity
prices, as the government battles a rising Islamic insurgency in the country.
Bangladesh, where more than 90 percent of the 140 million population are
Muslim, was rocked by a series of nationwide blasts in August and October as
well as deadly bomb campaigns targeting judges and courts.
"The strike came at a time when the countrymen are worried at the alarming
rise of terrorist groups in the country," said the president of the Federation
of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mir Nasiruddin.
He said the country cannot afford these costly strikes given that inflation
is hovering around seven percent.
Bangladesh police drag an opposition activist
away during a general strike in Dhaka November 24,
2005.[Reuters] | "Security has emerged as the biggest concern for the economy. Both the
government and opposition should sit together in this time of crisis instead of
fighting on the streets," stock analyst Yawar Sayeed said.
In the southeastern city of Chittagong several ships anchored at the port but
there were no container movements, police said.
But in the southern district of Khulna, home to some of the country's biggest
state-owned jute and paper mills, there was little disruption.
"The mills are open and train and ferry services have been uninterrupted.
Only the shops and markets did not open and the inter-district bus service has
been affected," said Khulna metropolitan police commissioner Khan Sayeed Hassan.
The strike is the 17th this year called by opposition parties.
Last year the Awami League and its allies called more than 20 shutdowns,
despite pleas from aid donors and business groups who say the strikes cost the
impoverished nation's economy tens of millions of dollars
annually.
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