Strike over missing opposition leader total in Bangladesh

Dhaka: Schools and businesses were shut in Dhaka yesterday as opposition parties enforced a day-long general strike across the country.

An 18-party opposition alliance was enforcing the strike to urge the government to find a regional opposition leader who went missing on Tuesday.

Security officials had cordoned off the headquarters of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), but the first few hours of the strike were largely peaceful.

Traffic on the usually clogged streets of Dhaka was thin amid tight security, with police deployed in the thousands across the city of ten million people.

Arson incidents

On Saturday, arsonists set fire to buses in Dhaka ahead of the strike, killing one man, police and media reports said. A parked bus was set on fire on Saturday in Dhaka's Khilgaon area, killing the 40-year-old driver, who had been asleep inside. It was not clear who was behind the arson.

The United News of Bangladesh agency and many television stations said several other buses were set on fire on Saturday in parts of Dhaka.

The opposition has blamed security agencies for the disappearance of the regional leader, Elias Ali, but the government has denied this, accusing the opposition of hiding him in order to create anarchy in the country.

Ali's wife said in a police complaint that her husband left their home in Dhaka late on Tuesday and that he and his driver have been missing since. His car was found by residents on a Dhaka street early on Wednesday, abandoned and with its doors open.

Ali's disappearance has further complicated Bangladesh's politics. Former prime minister Khalida Zia's BNP has been holding anti-government protests for months to demand that an independent caretaker government oversee elections. The government scrapped the 15-year-old system last year, saying it contradicted the constitution.