Clashes break out during Bangladesh strike

DHAKA – Police fired tear gas at protesters in northwestern Bangladesh on Monday as minor clashes broke out across the country during a paralysing nationwide strike called by the main opposition party.
In Rajshahi town, 150 miles (200 kilometres) northwest of Dhaka, hundreds of Bangladesh Nationalist Party activists threw rocks at police and vandalised vehicles, prompting police to react with tear gas and baton charges. “At least 15 strike supporters were arrested,” deputy commissioner of Rajshahi police Anwarul Morshed Khan told AFP.
Thousands of riot police patrolled through Dhaka and other key cities as the strike brought much of the country to a standstill, with all shops, businesses and schools shut, and major roads across the country deserted. The BNP, led by two times ex-premier Khaleda Zia, called the strike to protest against controversial plans for a new airport, rocketing food prices and a stock market crash that has hit thousands of small investors.
Dhaka’s benchmark DGEN share index has shed nearly 30 percent from its peak early in December. Groups of investors joined the strike after the index sank 5.7 percent on Sunday, triggering protests by small traders in central Dhaka. The market lost 3.5 percent in the first five minutes of trade on Monday. Eight buses were set on fire overnight in the capital just hours before the strike was enforced, police said.
“At least 8,500 police have been deployed in Dhaka. Security is tight,” the deputy commissioner of Dhaka police, Habibur Rahman, told AFP. BNP officials and supporters held small protest marches, chanting slogans against the government. The party’s head office was cordoned off by scores of riot police, who had a water cannon ready to break up protests. An autorickshaw was set on fire outside the office, with police arresting one activist.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw police use batons against protesters. The strike was the third that the BNP has called since suffering a crushing defeat in December 2008 elections. It was prompted by a government plan to construct an airport on a flood plain in Srinagar, just south of Dhaka, which triggered violent demonstrations by at least 20,000 villagers late last month.
A policeman was beaten to death during the protests. PM Sheikh Hasina, who wants to name the airport after her father, the country’s founding leader, said it would now be constructed at a different site. The BNP has criticised the plan as a waste of taxpayers’ money and said the country’s three existing international airports can meet rising demand for air traffic.
The party is also keen to exploit discontent over higher food prices, with food inflation hitting double-digit rates in recent months following two poor harvests and soaring prices on the international market. At least 600 policemen were deployed in the southeastern port city of Chittagong, city special branch police chief Meshbahuddin Ahmed said.
Cargo operations at the port, which handles 90 percent of Bangladesh’s 40 billion dollars of foreign trade, ground to a halt as it was cut off from the rest of the country by the strike.