Blasts, arrests mark Bangladesh opposition strike
Bomb blasts and arrests marked an opposition-called general strike in
Bangladesh on Thursday in protest of a court order jailing 33 of the
alliance’s leaders.
No injuries were reported from several crude bombs that exploded in
Dhaka. Schools and businesses were shut in the capital, and public life
was disrupted in other major cities and towns during the shutdown. The United News of Bangladesh agency said police arrested at least 17 activists in Dhaka.
ATN Bangla television station said more than 100 opposition supporters were arrested in various districts.
A court on Wednesday had denied bail to 33 opposition leaders charged
with involvement in an arson attack during a strike last month. The
defendants include former Cabinet Ministers and the acting secretary
general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former Prime Minister
Khaleda Zia. It heads the 18-party opposition alliance.
The opposition says the arson charge is politically motivated and the
bail rejection is aimed at suppressing the opposition movement.
Political tensions have sharply escalated since Elias Ali, an organising
secretary in Ms. Zia’s party, and his driver went missing April 17,
2012 from Dhaka. The opposition blames the government and its security
agencies for his disappearance, which they deny.
Ms. Zia’s party, meanwhile, announced in a statement that a two-hour
token hunger strike protest by opposition legislators will be held on
the Parliament building premises on Saturday to demand release of the
leaders.
Rights groups have counted at least 22 disappearances this year and more
than 50 since 2010, mostly of politicians. U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
have urged the government to investigate.
The opposition also set a June 10, 2012 ultimatum for the government to
restore a caretaker government system to oversee the next national
elections, due in 2014. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government
scrapped the 15-year-old system last year in what the opposition says
was part of a plan to rig the elections.
On Thursday, police cordoned off the headquarters of Ms. Zia’s party and
scuffled with those who tried to enter. Witnesses say Khairul Kabir
Khokon, education affairs secretary of the party, was arrested.
General strikes are common opposition tactics in Bangladesh, a fragile parliamentary democracy, to embarrass the government.
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