A series of small bombs wounded eight people in the Bangladeshi capital as a transport shutdown to force the dismissal of election officials paralysed the country for a fourth day on Wednesday.
Witnesses said the overnight blasts near the office of the Awami League, the main party enforcing the blockade, triggered widespread panic in Dhaka.
Police said they were investigating the blasts which came after rival political groups refused to compromise on the removal of the controversial election officials ahead of general elections in January.
At least 30 people were injured in fresh clashes on Wednesday between Awami League activists and those of its bitter rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The Awami League, led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, says the officials are biased in favour of the BNP led by Begum Khaleda Zia, whose term as prime minister expired in October.
”We are concerned about problems caused by the transport shutdown, but it is necessary to keep up the pressure,” Hasina told thousands of cheering supporters outside her home in Dhaka, defying a police ban on rallies and gatherings.
The BNP, which handed power to a caretaker government last month after completing its five-year term in office, says removing the officials is out of the question.
”We have told a panel of advisers of the interim administration that they have no legal mandate to fire any election commissioners,” said Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, the BNP’s secretary general.
BNP supporters staged counter-rallies in Dhaka and elsewhere, saying the Awami League was trying to disrupt the election by insisting on removal of chief election commissioner M.A. Aziz.
‘Nobody likes him’
Former military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad, who leads the Jatiya Party, said Aziz must quit his post in the greater interest of the country. ”He must go now as nobody likes him.”
Witnesses said the current protests over the election chief brought back memories of a tumultuous 1990 campaign that toppled Ershad from nearly nine year’s of power.
”This has been the fiercest protest since 1990,” said Kamrul Islam, a banker and keen political observer.
The anti-Ershad campaign was led jointly by Hasina and Khaleda, then opposition leaders. But they fell apart soon after Ershad had gone, and have since remained rivals for power.
Thousands of protesters squatted on highways to prevent any traffic moving, cutting off Dhaka from the rest of the country. Others burnt effigies of the election official and his deputies.
Reuters cameraman Rafiqur Rahman said more protesters took to the streets of Dhaka in the evening, prepared for a night vigil. Prices of essentials including food and medicines have risen more than 30% since the transport blockade started on Sunday, traders said on Wednesday.
Ports remained closed and businesses called for action to end the blockade as the shipment of most goods ground to a halt.
President Iajuddin Ahmed who leads the caretaker administration has so far made no public comment on the removal of Aziz and his deputies. But Aziz himself has said he will stay on until the election.
A political analyst said there were few options left for the president.
”Perhaps only the declaration of a state of emergency is the last option for the president if he wants to save the state from collapse,” said M.Ataur Rahman, head of Bangladesh Political Science Association.
Security has been stepped up in Dhaka and other cities, police said, following the blasts in Dhaka.
At least two people have been killed and hundreds wounded in clashes since Sunday, when the Awami League launched the transport blockade in the impoverished country of 140-million. – Reuters