General strike paralyses Dhaka

The Bangladeshi capital was paralysed yesterday by a general strike called by a group of 11 left-wing opposition parties to protest against price hikes and alleged corruption and plundering of national wealth by the country's rulers. There were no immediate reports of violence in the early hours of the one-day nationwide strike, the third major anti-government street protest this year, police and residents said.The streets in downtown Dhaka were deserted of cars and shops and schools remained shut as small groups of party activists and leaders carrying red flags and banners marched through the streets shouting anti-government slogans, witnesses said.

Limited bus and other transport services ran in some suburban districts amid tight police security, they said, adding that youth activists of the ruling Awami League party of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed also paraded the streets shouting pro-government slogans.The 12-hour strike ended peacefully in capital, except a brief scuffle between pro- and anti-strike activists in downtown Purana Paltan, which witnesses said was dispersed by police armed with batons.

However Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BSD) chief, Khalequzzaman, and several other left activists were assaulted by anti-strike activists as the 11-party alliance enforced the countrywide strike yesterday. Witnesses said some young men in a procession being led by State Minister for Shipping and Dhaka City Awami League General Secretary, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, attacked the pro-strike pickets.

Activists of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) were also chased by the same group when CPB General Secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, came forward to talk to the minister. Some women activists of the BSD, a component of the 11-party alliance, were injured as they came to the aid of Khalequzzaman. One of the injured was identified as Asma.

The Awami League procession was brought out after the supporters of the ruling party went to Fulbaria, an inter-district bus terminal, around 9.30am and forced the drivers to run their vehicles. After Khalequzzaman was assaulted, some men from the procession beat up some pro-strikers picketing in front of the National Press Club. The 11-party alliance called their first strike in a decade to press for the punishment of the culprits responsible for bombing the Communist Party's rally on January 20.