Anti-Government Strike Cripples Bangladesh
FARID HOSSAIN Associated Press
DHAKA, Bangladesh - Baton-wielding Bangladesh riot police fired tear gas and rounded up dozens of protesters Tuesday during a general strike called to protest a weekend grenade attack that killed 20 people and wounded hundreds at an opposition political rally.
The violence broke out after police tried to block hundreds of protesters from taking to the streets, witnesses said. Demonstrators waved clenched fists and shouted "Down with the government!"
At least 25 people were injured in the clashes in the capital, Dhaka, and police picked up about 50 protesters, the witnesses said.
Similar clashes - injuring about 100 people - erupted on the eve of the dawn-to-dusk strike, called by the main opposition Awami League party and backed by several leftist parties, the United News of Bangladesh news agency reported.
The protest shut down shops and schools and disrupted traffic across Bangladesh.
Opposition activists threw stones and bricks at public buses in downtown Dhaka, injuring at least three passengers, the news agency said. Train services on several routes - particularly between Dhaka and the southeastern port city of Chittagong - were halted as strike supporters barricaded tracks or attacked station staff.
"We have stopped trains on the Dhaka-Chittagong route at various stations due to security reasons," Mostafa Zamil, director of state-run Bangladesh Railway told the United News of Bangladesh.
Police, meanwhile, were yet to identify a charred body found inside the burnt-out carriage of a train torched by a mob Sunday near a station at Bhairab, 50 miles east of Dhaka. About 20 people were injured in the arson attack.
At least 20 people were killed and more than 300 injured when more than a dozen grenades were lobbed into the crowd while opposition leader Sheikh Hasina was speaking outside her Awami League headquarters on Saturday.
The Awami League, meanwhile, has shortened to half a day another strike called for Wednesday to allow people to attend the funeral of a senior opposition leader, spokesman Abdul Jalil said.
Ivy Rahman, who lost her legs in the grenade attack, died in Dhaka's Combined Military Hospital early Tuesday, doctors and her family said, raising the death toll to 20.
Mass protests and violence have spread across Bangladesh to protest the attack, putting security forces on high alert.
No one has claimed responsibility, but Hasina, who was unharmed, has blamed Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's administration for the attack. The government has denied involvement.
Fearing renewed violence during the two-day strike that started Tuesday, officials deployed more than 5,000 police and paramilitary troops deployed in the capital on Tuesday.
In Dhaka, a city of 10 million people, the streets were empty of most vehicles except rickshaws. Government offices were open, but few employees showed up for work, witnesses said.
"We don't want to see any more death. This repressive government must step down right now," Hasina told reporters late Monday.
The Awami League has accused Zia's government of corruption, incompetence and harassing political opponents, and has demanded that Zia step down and call early elections. The government rejects the allegations and has vowed to remain in power until its five-year term ends in 2006.
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