Dhaka, March 12 (AP): Several bombs
exploded in Dhaka and police clashed with protesters today as
Opposition leaders enforced a daylong, nationwide general strike over
what they say is police intimidation.
Witnesses and
news reports said several homemade bombs exploded during the beginning
of the shutdown. RTV and Bangla Vision stations reported explosions in
different areas of Dhaka. It was not clear if there were any injuries.
Small-scale
clashes were reported inside and outside Dhaka, and thousands of
security officials were deployed in the capital to maintain order.
Nearly 400 members
of paramilitary Bangladesh Border Guard were deployed to aid police in
Dhaka, said Maj. Gen. Aziz Ahmed, the force’s director general. Schools
and most businesses in Dhaka were closed today. Traffic was thin on the
usually clogged streets.
An 18-party
Opposition alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, was
enforcing the strike to protest alleged police intimidation during a
rally yesterday. The party and its allies are demanding restoration of a
caretaker government system to oversee upcoming elections. Its ally
Jamaat-e-Islami also wants a halt to trials of several Opposition
politicians accused of crimes stemming from the country’s 1971
independence war.
After yesterday’s
rally, police arrested some senior leaders and more than 100 activists
of the BNP, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, during a raid
on its party headquarters in Dhaka. Police said they recovered at least
10 homemade bombs from the headquarters. But the party accused police of
putting the bombs inside the headquarters to create a drama.
BNP’s acting
secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, a former mayor of Dhaka
and a former home minister, were among those detained. This afternoon,
authorities released three leaders, including Alamgir, after they had
been held for nearly 18 hours.
A Dhaka court jailed about 100 others pending more hearings on their bail petitions, government prosecutor Abdullah Abu said.
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