General strike in Bangladesh after a day of suicide bombing
After a day of suicide bombing, a national wide general strike emptied the streets of Dhaka and other cities of Bangladesh. More than 100 people injured in the clashes between police and protesters.
As a result of the shutdown called to protest against the eviction of Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Businesses and schools across the country were closed on Sunday.The strike halted almost all transportation in Dhaka, a city of about 12 million people, just as the majority-Muslim country begins to celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday.
Police said that at least three people were killed and five injured in a suicide bombing on Saturday at an opposition politician’s house. The bomb was detonated at the residence of Afaz Uddin, an Awami League member of parliament, near Kushtia, 300km west of the capital Dhaka, according to authorities. Authorities won’t clear whether they thought the attack was related to the widespread violence over Khaleda’s eviction
As told to the Reuters news agency that the strike by a police officer in Dhaka’s city centre, the first of its kind since 2007, had so far gone peacefully, but that the police were prepared for trouble.
Less than 24 hours earlier, police in Dhaka were firing tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of demonstrators protesting Zia’s eviction from the residence she has occupied at army headquarters for around 30 years.
Violence erupted in more than 20 towns and dozens of people were injured in clashes with police. About 50 people were injured in Serajganj, 150km northwest of Dhaka, local television channels reported.
Khaleda’s residence in the sprawling compound was leased to her by the government in 1982, after her husband and ex-president, General Ziaur Rahman, was killed in an abortive coup. They had lived in the house for several years.
The current government of Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the prime minister, who leads the centre-left, secular Awami League party, cancelled Zia’s lease last year. They intend to build multi-storey buildings for families of army officers killed in a mutiny in a paramilitary unit headquarters in Dhaka.
