Thousands of police patrolled the empty streets of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, on Sunday during a one-day strike called by the opposition over splitting the city into two administrative zones. Schools and businesses were shut and roads largely deserted as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist allies enforced the strike in protest at the government’s decision.
Several BNP activists were injured in scuffles with police at a dawn rally. Mobile courts that are empowered to hand out on-the-spot jail terms to any law-breaking protesters were deployed at key locations in the city, Dhaka police spokesman Masud Ahmed said.
The government recently ratified a new law splitting Dhaka into two administrative zones, which it said would improve services and utilities for the city’s 15 million people.
The opposition criticised the move, saying it was politically motivated as the new system forced the city’s elected mayor, a senior BNP official, out of office. Bangladeshi police fired teargas at scores of protesters as violence broke out during the opposition’s strike.
