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Shops shut across Bangladesh in opposition strike
Associated Press - November 14, 2010
Julhas Alam, Dhaka, Bangladesh – Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets and swung batons to break up demonstrations in Bangladesh's capital Sunday as the opposition party enforced a nationwide general strike to protest the eviction of its leader from a military-owned house.
Security officials scuffled with hundreds of supporters of Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party outside the party headquarters in downtown Dhaka. Police strung barbed wire around the headquarters to keep demonstrators away.
Witnesses said several people were injured in scattered clashes in Dhaka, but police would not provide a number. Demonstrators in the city set fire to at least two vehicles, including a police van.
Schools and businesses were shut across the country Sunday, normally a work day in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. ATN Bangla television reported that protesters had gathered in major cities and towns, but there were no reports of major violence.
The strike followed clashes Saturday between police and opposition supporters who were trying to stop Zia – who served as prime minister in 1991-1996 and again in 2001-2006 – from being evicted from her home, where she has lived for 30 years.
The dispute reflects the bitter rivalry between Bangladesh's two major parties – headed by Zia and her archrival, current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – as Bangladesh's democracy struggles to return to normalcy following the restoration of an elected government in 2008 after nearly two years under a state of emergency.
The house was allotted to Zia on humanitarian grounds in 1981, when her husband, former President Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in a military coup. She later entered politics.
Under Hasina's government, military authorities asked Zia last year to vacate the home, saying she has been violating the allotment conditions by conducting politics from inside the military area.
Military authorities said Saturday that Zia had left the house voluntarily to respect an order of the High Court that gave her until Oct. 30 to vacate it. Zia, however, said she was dragged out.
Zia has filed a petition with the High Court challenging the military notice, but the court dismissed it. She has appealed that order, and the Supreme Court is to hear the case on Nov. 29.
Some feared the strike would be the start of prolonged unrest.
"I am afraid chaos will return," Abul Kalam Azad, a school teacher, said as he waited at a bus stop in Dhaka's Malibagh area. "Nobody bothers about the people's suffering."
On Saturday night, a bomb exploded at the house of a ruling party lawmaker in southwestern Bangladesh, killing three people and injuring two others. The lawmaker was unhurt and it was not immediately clear whether the attack was related to the tensions over Zia's eviction.
General strikes are a common opposition tactic in politically unstable Bangladesh and have been known to turn violent.
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