Violence grips Bangladesh as opposition starts strike,5 killed

At least five persons were killed and nearly 50 injured as opposition parties today enforced a 60-hour strike across Bangladesh demanding a neutral caretaker government to oversee the next general election.
Supporters of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its rightwing ally Jamaat-e-Islami set afire vehicles and exploded crude bombs in the capital city Dhaka as the strike got under way early this morning.
The incidents of clashes, arson, vandalism and homemade bomb blasts were reported from other parts of the country, including port city Chittagong, Rajshahi, Natore and Bogra.
Authorities deployed thousands of additional police and paramilitary officers countrywide to prevent any untoward incident.

Police said opposition members hacked to death a ruling Awami League supporter in western Jessore while a BNP worker was killed in shootout with police in neighbouring Faridpur.
The third death occurred in Pabna as activists of the ruling party allegedly opened fire on BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami men in Ishwardi upazila, the Daily Star reported. Two other persons were killed elsewhere in the country.

"Some 11 vehicles were set on fire at different parts of the (Dhaka) city since the morning," a police spokesman said while anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) enforced intensified vigil in the capital and other major cities.

Earlier, in an apparent pre-strike action opposition activists exploded bombs in front of houses of several ministers, the chief election commissioner and two TV channels, injuring several including two journalists.
Doctors said one of the journalists was struggling for life with critical wounds at the military hospital in Dhaka.
The strike came as the overnight telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP chief Khaleda Zia could make little headway in easing tensions.
Hasina had yesterday reached out to her arch-rival Zia, a day after BNP supporters staged violent protests across the country to push their demand for setting up an interim government comprising non-political figures ahead of polls.

"We will hold talks but cannot withdraw the hartal," Zia's aide Maruf Kamal Sohel quoted her as telling the premier.
Hasina has proposed the formation of a caretaker government with representatives of all political parties. Zia, however, rejected the proposal and floated a formula for creating a neutral poll-time caretaker regime. The government is yet to formally respond to Zia's proposal.
The Awami League, which has a three-fourths majority in the current parliament, scrapped the caretaker system by amending the Constitution two years ago.