Troops patrol Dhaka streets ahead of transport blockade

Dhaka: Troops patrolled the streets of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka yesterday ahead of a nationwide transport blockade called by political parties that are boycotting a parliamentary election due later this month.

The vote is set for January 22, but a multi-party alliance led by former prime minister Shaikh Hasina has said it will not take part, accusing the interim government charged with organising the polls of favouring her opponents.

People trying to avoid the blockade called for today scrambled onto crowded buses, trains and ferries leaving the capital.

Around 50 people were killed yesterday when a bus carrying passengers out of Dhaka ahead of the protest crashed and caught fire southeast of the capital, police said. The interim government in charge of holding a free and fair election has said it will use troops to keep the peace in the run-up to the vote.

At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured in clashes between supporters of immediate past prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia and her rival Shaikh Hasina.

Khaleda, chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), ended her five-year tenure as prime minister in late October and handed power to the interim government headed by President Iajuddin Ahmad.

Hasina, who heads the Awami League and the multi-party alliance, accuses Iajuddin of favouring Khaleda in the coming polls and has demanded his resignation as chief of the caretaker authority. Meanwhile, police used loudspeakers to urge Dhaka citizens to stay calm and not to join the blockade that is expected to close down transport, business, schools and ports.

"We urge you not to attend a rally or gathering carrying any weapons including wooden sticks or iron rods that could be used to cause violence or disrupt peace," police said.

A.S.M. Shahjahan, an adviser to the caretaker government in 2001 and a former police chief, said the country was headed for a period of serious trouble.