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Bangladeshis Riot After Power Outages
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Sep. 28, 2006
(AP) Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas Thursday at demonstrators violently protesting two days of near-constant power outages in Bangladesh's capital, witnesses said.

About 200 protesters were injured in the clashes, which saw government offices attacked and vehicles smashed in Dhaka, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.

Police did not give an injury figure. It was not immediately clear if any security officials were hurt.

Power cuts often hit Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 144 million people.

But outages have become more frequent since Tuesday, when a unit that normally produces 210 megawatts of electricity a day went off-line at the Ghorasal power station near Dhaka, the government power board said.

Some Dhaka residents have been getting just two hours of electricity a day.

The violence broke out in Dhaka's northern Mirpur district, where nearly 1,000 stone-throwing demonstrators rampaged through the streets.

It spread to other parts of the city, witnesses and the news report said.

"The mob was becoming violent. We tried to prevent them from destroying government property," a police official at the scene said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The protesters put up barricades on a major Mirpur thoroughfare for hours, and torched at least two buses.

Violent protests broke out in the city's southern Saidabad district late Wednesday, when demonstrators blocked roads and smashed vehicles, private TV station ATN Bangla reported.

Lawmakers from the country's main opposition Awami League party walked out of a parliamentary session Thursday, protesting the power outages.

"This government is so inefficient that it can't even provide electricity," senior opposition lawmaker Abdur Razzak told the legislature before the walkout.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's five-year term expires next month. An election is due in January.

Public anger is stronger than usual during this outage because the power cuts have affected devotees trying to offer special evening prayers for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Most Bangladeshis are Muslims.

"When we go to mosques for prayers, there is often no electricity. This is unacceptable," said Mirpur resident Abdur Rahim.

The outages have also decreased water supplies in the capital, where water plants rely on electricity, residents say.

Bangladesh usually produces 3,000 megawatts of electricity a day, but has a total demand of around 4,500 megawatts, according to the government power board.

The government says industrial growth has increased demand.

In January, police killed at least 18 demonstrators in protests against power outages in the southwestern district of Chapainawabganj.




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