Clashes spread on 2nd day, blockade shuts Bangladesh

Clashes erupted at a dozen spots, including areas around the headquarters of the Awami League, led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka.

Protesters set ablaze and damaged several vehicles and clashed with the police across the city and its outskirts, witnesses said. The police used batons and teargas to disperse stone-throwing supporters of Hasina’s multi-party alliance, which is boycotting the January 22 election.

On Monday, the protest affected operation of buses, ferries and railways. Deliveries from ports were also suspended and most businesses and educational institutions remained closed. Although taxis and rickshaws were plying within Dhaka, alliance activists manned strategic points to prevent vehicles entering and leaving the city.

About 70 people, including the police were injured on Sunday, the first day of the three-day blockade.

The alliance called for blockades to protest what it sees as the interim government’s inability to hold free and fair elections. It says caretaker President Iajuddin Ahmed favours Hasina’s rival, Begum Khaleda Zia, in the polls.

The alliance, which has threatened to block access to the presidential palace on Tuesday, has demanded Iajuddin’s resignation, but he has refused to do so.

An Iajuddin adviser said on Sunday that the interim Government would consult rival parties in a last-minute effort to find a solution to the political stalemate, with the hope to end the country’s long-running political woes. However, analysts have said the only way out would be to postpone elections, which Hasina has demanded but Khaleda has opposed.

At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured in clashes between political rivals since late October.

—ANIS AHMED