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Bangladesh Paralyzed In Second Day Of Strikes
DHAKA, April 2 (News Agencies) - An opposition-called general strike kept Bangladesh virtually paralyzed for a second day Monday as crude bombs exploded and police used tear gas to quell violent clashes between protestors and government supporters.
The violence followed ugly scenes on Sunday that left one person dead and 200 injured, police said.
During Monday's action, four women were among 10 opposition activists injured when police used batons and teargas on rock-throwing strikers marching in old Dhaka's Bangsal street, witnesses said.
The trouble began after a crude bomb exploded near the march, sparking clashes between rival supporters of government and opposition parties.
In Bijoynagar, Purana Paltan and Nayapaltan districts, strike activists and ruling party supporters clashed and threw rocks at each other.
There were also loud blasts from dozens of crude bombs exploding, which forced riot police to use teargas to end the fighting, witnesses and residents said.
No major injuries were reported but police detained several opposition protestors.
In Fakirapul district, police baton-charged protesting opposition leaders and activists, injuring several of them, including opposition chief whip Khandakar Delwar Hossain, opposition officials said.
Hossain, who was hit repeatedly by police with batons, had been rushed to a nearby clinic, his family later said.
In the southeastern town of Shitakunda, more than 25 opposition activists were injured, three of them with bullet wounds, in armed clashes between strike supporters and opponents, residents said, adding police fired teargas to stop the fighting.
Sporadic clashes also left 20 people injured in western Magura and six more in central Munshiganj districts, the private Ekushey Television reported.
In cities around the country, public transport stayed off the roads and schools and businesses remained shut, witnesses said.
In Dhaka, many banks and offices were only partly functioning, with fewer staff reporting to work, they said.
Only selected government and private buses and tricycle rickshaws were operating, witnesses and police said.
Dhaka Stock Exchange suspended trading for the second day Monday due to the strike.
Sporadic incidents of violence and bomb blasts were also reported during in the port city of Chittagong and several other cities, opposition sources said.
The three-day strike, due to end Tuesday evening, was called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed and her Awami League government.
On Sunday a driver was killed in the southeastern town of Feni when a bomb was hurled at his truck.
Dhaka and Chittagong were also rocked by a series of bomb blasts after nightfall Sunday, a working day in Muslim Bangladesh.
BNP chief Khaleda Zia, who heads a four-party opposition alliance, last month gave the government a March 30th ultimatum to step down or face a nationwide shutdown.
Her rival Sheikh Hasina, who offered to step down after April 17th and seek re-election before June 12th, later blasted Zia for her alleged intransigence and ruled out the prospect of polls before mid-July, when the government's five-year term ends.
According to Bangladesh's constitution, polls have to be staged by a caretaker government within three months of the dissolution of parliament.
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