At least 20 people were wounded in gun battles between rival activists as a transport blockade to force the removal of controversial election officials paralysed Bangladesh on Monday, police and witnesses said.
The wounded, including a police officer caught in crossfire, were taken to hospitals following battles in western Natore, 230km from the capital Dhaka.
Police used batons and teargas to quell the violence on the first day of an indefinite blockade.
Witnesses said thousands of activists of a 14-party alliance led by Sheikh Hasina, chief of the Awami League, squatted on highways linking Dhaka with Chittagong city and other centres.
Police and the elite Rapid Action Battalion watched the chanting protesters but did not try to disperse them, the witnesses said.
”We are facing a bigger law-and-order challenge today [Monday] as both sides are massing their men on the streets,” a police officer told Reuters, referring to the Awami League and rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Two people were killed and hundreds injured during a stoppage last week.
The blockades have been organised by the 14-party alliance, which is determined to boot out the poll officials ahead of national elections in January.
”We will be compelled to turn this peaceful blockade into violent one and we are capable to storm the election commission office to throw away the biased officials,” alliance leader Hasanul Haque Inu told reporters.
Light at end of tunnel
The alliance accuses the election commissioners of being biased towards Hasina’s rivals, particularly the BNP and its leader Begum Khaleda Zia.
Khaleda stepped down last month at the end of her five-year term and the country is now being run by an interim administration headed by President Iajuddin Ahmed.
Iajuddin underwent open-heart surgery in July. Doctors checked his health on Monday and said he was stable despite increased work pressure and tension.
Hasina in a statement blamed the president for the stalemate and said the blockade would continue, with the aim of free and fair elections.
The blockades last week and on Monday shut everything from schools to ports. Many people left Dhaka ahead of the latest stoppage, fearing violence or being ”stranded” in the city.
Police ordered an indefinite ban on the carrying of weapons and sticks during rallies or demonstrations in Dhaka and other main cities from Monday.
The president on Monday sent three of his advisers to the election commission to talk to the controversial commissioners to try and find a way out of the current impasse.
Iajuddin is expected to address the nation in a couple of days to explain how he planned to resolve the crisis.
”We see a light at the end of the tunnel and hope a solution is possible within 24 to 48 hours from now,” Mahbubul Alam, adviser in-charge of the Information Ministry told a news conference following a meeting of the council of advisers with the president. — Reuters