Dhaka: Opposition activists derailed a train in Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing three people, as part of a campaign against elections due to be held next month, officials said.
Three coaches and the engine of the express train toppled off the tracks in the northern district of Gaibandha, trapping dozens of passengers, police and railway spokesmen said.
“Among the trapped passengers, three have died, including two men and a woman,” Gaibandha police chief Sajid Hussain told AFP.
Hussain said five passengers who had been rescued from one of the derailed coaches were in a serious condition and others had suffered minor injuries.
The private television network Somoy put the number of injured at 40.
Mahbubul Alam Bakshi, the head of Bangladesh Railway’s northern region, said protesters had deliberately removed fishplates that linked the rail tracks, denouncing the derailing as “an act of sabotage”.
More than 60 people have been killed since late October when the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) began a campaign to force Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina to stand down ahead of the January 5 elections in favour of a caretaker government.
The BNP has refused to field candidates in the contest, which electoral officials have said could be postponed.
Police chief Hussain said Wednesday’s derailing was believed to be the work of opposition activists protesting plans to hold next month’s election, adding that two had been arrested at the scene.
Bakshi said that the pair were both followers of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist movement that is banned from taking part in the election and is allied to the BNP.
Meanwhile, the Awami League-led ruling grand-alliance overnight decided to go ahead with plans for elections set for January 5, 2014, despite a surprise announcement by a key-coalition partner to back off from the polls amid escalating violence that increased the death toll to 45 in one week.
“The election must be held and the constitutional process will have to be continued,” a senior Awami League leader told the mass circulation Prothom Alo quoting Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina as saying at a late night meeting with influential leaders of the alliance.
The Daily Star newspaper also carried an identical report saying Hasina told the unscheduled meeting that the elections will be held on schedule, “whether anyone participates or not” but added that if the election was not held, “the government would follow the constitution”.
The comments clearly meant the government would have a state of emergency proclaimed under a presidential order under the constitution if the evolving situation eventually forces a postponement of the polls.
The premier’s comments came as the BNP stayed off the polls, while the ruling alliance’s crucial partner Jatiya Party of former president HM Ershad on Tuesday said it too decided to back off due to lack of election “atmosphere”.
The reports said two influential leaders of Jatiya Party, Anisul Islam Mahmoud and Ziauddin Bablu, who are members of the reconstituted poll-time cabinet, also joined the late night meeting of the coalition and suggested the election be held in time and expected Ershad to eventually revise his decision to boycott the poll.
Amidst the uncertainty and continued violence, Indian external affairs Sujata Singh on Wednesday arrived in Dhaka on a two-day tour for talks with three major parties, Hasina, her arch-rival BNP chief Khaleda Zia and HM Ershad, besides her routine meeting with the Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary Shadul Haque.
US ambassador in Dhaka Dan Mozena on Tuesday held talks with three senior ministers at their office to discuss the situation while US Assistant Secretary of State Nishas Desai held a news briefing.
The US embassy in Dhaka also issued a statement in Dhaka urging the major two parties to immediately reach a consensus “as the end of the mandate for the current government fast approaches”.
— With inputs from AFP
