Bangladesh's pre poll violence continues, 6 more dead

As Bangladesh's main opposition continued demonstration on the second day of the non-stop countrywide 60-hour hartal, six more people including a ruling party man were killed on Monday. The latest deaths bring to 18 the number of fatalities reported in Bangladesh since Friday. There is so far no official casualty figure for the pre-poll violence. The fresh wave of violence broke out Friday after former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's 18-party alliance asked its supporters to take to the street to press home its demand for the restoration of the non-party caretaker government to oversee next general elections slated for early 2014. The parliament is due to expire on Jan. 24 next year and elections reportedly should be held within 90 days before its expiry. Khaleda on Friday called the three-day nationwide shutdown from 6 a.m. local time on Oct. 27 to 6 p.m. on Oct. 29. On account of the hartal, severe clashes between pro-hartal pickets and police backed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party men have been reported in parts of capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. In the early hours of second day's hartal on Monday, a leader of Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was bombed and knifed to death in Jhenidah, some 178 km west of capital Dhaka. In Chandpur, some 115 km southeast of Dhaka, a youth of the party was killed when pickets clashed with law enforcers and Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League party men. The district's Police Chief Amir Jafar confirmed to Xinhua the death of one BNP activist in hartal violence. The fourth death was reported from Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka, where a trucker died as his vehicle overturned after pickets threw brick chips at him. Two more persons, including one from the ruling party and one from the opposition, were also reportedly killed in two Bangladesh districts -- Kishoreganj, some 117 km northeast of Dhaka, and northern Jamalpur, 185 km from the capital city. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets against opposition Jamaat men. Dozens of vehicles were smashed or set on fire during the hours of hartal in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. Scores of cocktails and handmade bombs were exploded but caused no casualties. The traffic on the city streets remained relatively thin as most private vehicles were kept indoors. Security forces reportedly dispersed protesters as they tried to hold marches along major roads in Dhaka and many other parts of the country. Additional law enforcers have been deployed in Dhaka to avoid any untoward incident during the hartal. Five men were reportedly dead and scores including cops injured in violence in the first day of opposition alliance enforced strike on Sunday. Seven protesters were also reportedly killed and hundreds of others injured when opposition supporters and their ruling party rivals fought pitched battles across the country on Friday and Saturday. Hasina's AL party has blamed the main opposition party for creating anarchic situation in the country in the name of political activities and urged the opposition leader to withdraw its three-day hartal call and sit down for dialogue to form an all- party polls-time government. The top leaders of Bangladesh's two main political parties held phone talks on Saturday, the first direct conversation between them since January 2009 when Hasina's cabinet took the oath of office. BNP chief accepted Hasina's invitation for holding dialogue but deferred the premier's proposed date. BNP Spokesman Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir Monday alleged that AL has been staging a drama with the dialogue initiative to put the blame, if it fails, on the opposition. He expressed the hope there is still an opportunity for an effective dialogue and said, "Our leader (BNP chief) is keenly interested to sit for dialogue any time after the 60-hour hartal ends Tuesday at 6 p.m. (local time)." Alamgir further said AL should take the first initiative. "I've already written the AL general secretary start dialogue to reach consensus about the formation of the polls-time government. So they have to invite us for dialogue."