Opposition strike paralyses Bangladesh

The main opposition Awami League yesterday enforced a day-long general strike across Bangladesh protesting Friday's attack on the party chief and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed.

The shutdown disrupted normal life and slowed down business and economic activities in the country. The political atmosphere was charged as the strike coincided with the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) founding anniversary.

Riot police laid siege to the Awami League central office in Dhaka, preventing entry of party leaders and workers by erecting barbed wire fences. Agitated workers and police chased each other and got into fights during picketing there.

Pro-strike activists damaged several buses in Dhaka as they turned violent after police stopped them from marching on the streets.

Police picked up dozens of opposition activists, including some women, as they were marching on the streets.

Former minister Matia Chowdhury, Opposition Chief Whip Abdus Shahid, Ahsanullah Master, MP, Dr Abdur Razzak, MP, and others managed to assemble in front of the party office, but were held back while trying to lead a procession.

Witnesses said all modes of automobiles went off the streets, barring a few seen plying VIP routes. The number of rickshaws on the roads was less than on other shutdown days.

Schools, shops, businesses, private offices and courts were closed. Attendance in government offices was thin.

On Friday and Saturday police picked up nearly 300 Awami League leaders and workers, and searched the houses of some Awami leaders and former ministers who went into hiding to avoid getting caught before the strike.

The Awami League enforced the shutdown to protest an "attempt on the life" of Hasina in southwestern Satkhira district on Friday during her organisational tour.

The government has pledged to investigate and punish those responsible for the attack on Hasina's motorcade.

The authorities deployed more than 5,000 paramilitary troops, armed battalion and riot police patrols at important points to maintain order.