Bangladesh paralysed by Opposition blockade

DHAKA—One person has died and 50 were injured as Bangladesh was paralysed by another opposition transport blockade as officials prepared for talks to try and resolve the crisis.
The clash took place in the northeast Sylhet district during rallies by both the main opposition Awami League and the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who are embroiled over electoral reforms ahead of January polls. “Supporters of the parties threw stones and small bombs at each other at each other and exchanged gunfire,” said police sub-inspector Saffaet Hossen on Sunday.
Police responded by firing tear gas to disperse the crowds. One man, a BNP activist, was hit by a bullet and died later in hospital, said Hossen. Members of the interim administration’s advisory council — effectively a cabinet — were due to meet Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed and BNP chief Khaleda Zia later Sunday in a bid to prevent the blockade continuing into a second day.
Late night talks between President Iajuddin Ahmed and the two leaders failed to resolve the impasse. “We will sit again with the leaders of the Awami League and BNP. We have some messages and then we will discuss the responses of the leaders,” advisory council member Mahbubul Alam told reporters. Earlier, in Dhaka, a police officer was seriously injured while five activists suffered minor injuries after police baton-charged rampaging protesters, police inspector Aminul Alam said.
Opposition supporters set up blockades on roads connecting the country’s main towns and cities. Thousands of main opposition Awami League supporters also marched through the streets of the capital chanting slogans. The blockade left the normally congested city deserted, with cars off the roads and many businesses and offices closed on Sunday, which is a normal working day in the majority Muslim nation of 144 million.
Other main towns and cities were also affected by the shutdown. “Public life has been stopped and all transport links have been severed,” said Khan Sayeed Hasan, deputy inspector general of police in the northwest Rajshahi region. The opposition’s demands included President Iajuddin Ahmed’s resignation as head of the interim government overseeing the elections, a revision of a voters’ list it claimed included 14 million fake names, and “reconstitution” of the election commission.
The opposition has said the reforms were necessary to prevent the polls being tilted in favour of the outgoing government, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Earlier, opposition blockades and strikes had paralysed the nation for days, cost businesses millions of dollars and led to violent clashes between rival parties. The opposition accuses the BNP of trying to rig the elections by appointing party loyalists to key positions within the supposedly neutral caretaker administration and the election commission.
At least 31 people have now died, mostly in clashes between rival supporters, since the end of the BNP-led government’s five-year mandate on October 27. The president appointed himself as head of the caretaker government after the original choice for the job — former Supreme Court judge K.M. Hasan, a senior BNP official in the late 1970s — stepped aside as a result of opposition protests.
Further protests also resulted in M.A. Aziz, another former Supreme Court judge, taking three months’ leave from his job as chief election commissioner so the polls could be held without him overseeing them.—Agencies