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Hundreds hurt in Dhaka violence

Dhaka (dpa) - Hundreds of opposition activists were injured and thousands arrested Sunday as a fresh flare up of political violence gripped Bangladesh, officials and witnesses said.

Bloody clashes broke out between police and anti-government demonstrators on the streets of Dhaka as workers and supporters of the country's main opposition alliance enforced a six-hour blockade of the capital city.

Opposition sources claimed over 500 people were injured in the street battles which paralysed businesses in the city for almost the whole day as transport, banks and schools were forced to shut down.

The opposition, which announced a 36-hour protest general strike against alleged police excesses from early Tuesday morning, also said nearly 3,000 activists were arrested by authorities during the skirmishes.

The embattled ruling Nationalist-Islamist coalition of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia deployed more than 18,000 policemen and paramilitary frontier guards and detained about 4,000 suspected opposition activists ahead of the "siege" of Dhaka announced by the opposition.

"The government tried to foil the opposition's ongoing movement through an unprecedented security build-up in the capital city," said Sheikh Hasina, former premier and opposition supremo.

Riot police fired rubber bullets and teargas shells at stone throwing youths in downtown Dhaka critically wounding several senior leaders of Hasina's Awami League which spearheads the 14-party opposition combine.

Opposition parties are calling on the coalition government to reform the election commission and the caretaker government system to ensure a fair vote or step down.

The opposition are also urging Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to expel the fundamentalist Jamaat-i Islami from the coalition for its alleged anti-independence role in 1971 when Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan.

A retired army chief turned opposition politician, General KM Shafiullah, and a former interior minister, Mohammad Nasim, were among the injured as the clashes spread to Dhaka's suburbs.

Violence also broke out in five other cities and towns in the country including the southern port city of Khulna.

A western-style, parliamentary democracy was set up in Bangladesh in 1991 after more than 15 years of military rule.

But a continuing standoff between the two most powerful political leaders in the Muslim majority country, Zia and Hasina, is a constant threat to its stability, analysts say.