Opposition strike sparks violence in Bangladesh

Dhaka  :  A protester was shot dead and a dozen people, including policemen, were injured in stray incidents of violence as Bangladesh’s opposition enforced a countrywide 60-hour non-stop strike Monday.

Nasir Uddin, 24, a leader of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was killed when police opened fire at clashing activists of the ruling and the opposition parties in Patgram, a sub-district of Lalmonirhat, 343 km from here, reported Xinhua.

The law enforcers were forced to open fire to bring the situation under control as the ruling Awami League (AL) activists and the opposition BNP men fought pitched battles, said a Lalmonirhat police official who preferred to be unnamed.

Mostafizur Rahman Mukul, an auto-rickshaw passenger, succumbed to his injuries in Dhaka Medical College Hospital Monday morning.

Mukul died of burn injuries 12 hours after miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at the vehicle at Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka ahead of the strike.

Dozens of vehicles were reportedly set on fire and damaged fully or partially across Bangladesh Sunday.

In Dhaka, scores of Molotov cocktail bombs and handmade bombs were exploded.

The shutdown has crippled normal life and business transactions to a large extent with many main markets and educational institutions closed.

Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells to disperse stone throwing protestors who attempted to block roads and bring out processions along the major city streets, disrupting traffic.

Police have reportedly detained dozens of opposition alliance men.

Bangladesh’s main opposition Saturday had called another round of 60-hour nationwide strike from Monday to press its demand for a non-party caretaker government to oversee the national elections slated for early 2014.

Earlier, the opposition alliance observed a 60-hour countrywide strike from Oct 27 amid violent clashes, vandalism, arson and bomb explosions.

Over a dozen people, including those from the ruling as well as the opposition parties were killed and hundreds injured during the strike.

Political tension in Bangladesh heightened in December last year after the 18-party opposition alliance geared up its anti-government agitation programmes, demanding restoration of the non-party caretaker government system.