9 die in Bangladesh unrest as opposition enforces blockade
PRIME MINISTER URGED TO RESIGN AND MAKE WAY FOR NEUTRAL CARETAKER GOVERNMENT
Bangladesh opposition supporters blocked roads and ripped up railway tracks yesterday in protest against elections announced for January, leaving nine people dead and plunging the nation into fresh turmoil.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( BNP) and its Islamist allies called a 48- hour nationwide blockade to press their demand for suspension of the poll announced on national television on Monday evening.
The BNP has been calling for Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina to resign and make way for a neutral caretaker government to oversee the elections — demands rejected by Hasina and her party.
Railway links between Dhaka and Chittagong and northeastern Sylhet were cut off in protest against the “election of farce”, prompting authorities to send paramilitary BGB troops to guard the capital and other major cities.
Chief election commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad’s announcement on Monday pushed the country’s volatile politics to a more intricate phase pitting the ruling Awami League against BNP, which demanded the poll plan be shelved until the settlement of the dispute over a transitional government.
However, Ahmad said the elections authority had waited for the major parties to reach an understanding over their disputes “but now we don’t have time to delay further” as the commission was obligated to hold the polls within January 24, 2014 under a constitutional deadline. “We repeatedly urged the major parties so that they reach a consensus to fulfil the nation’s expectations, we still hope they will not ignore the expectations,” Ahmad said.
Taking a stand
According to the schedule, December 2 is the last date for submission of nomination papers, meaning the opposition must decide its stance on the polls and nominate candidates within a week.
Immediately after the schedule was announced, senior opposition leaders flocked to BNP chief and ex- prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office.
“We demand the polls schedule be held back until the crisis over the election- time government is resolved,” the party’s acting secretary- general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said at a media conference held after the meeting. The opposition has been spearheading a street campaign demanding formation of a “non- party” government for election oversight with an “acceptable” person as its head instead of Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina, rejecting her call for a multi- party interim government.
Deadly clashes claimed at least 31 lives in the past three weeks, while the violent demonstrations saw hospitals filled up with scores of wounded patients mostly with burn injuries as protesters torched over 500 vehicles.
Leading civil society figures urged the major two parties to make their final efforts to reach a consensus while the Indian and US envoys in Dhaka said they were expecting Bangladesh to witness a credible election.