BANGLADESH: Violent protests continue in Bangladesh's main city Dhaka

Police fired rubber bullets and used batons to disperse thousands of protesters across Bangladeshi cities on Monday (November 13), and at least one person was killed and 50 wounded as a political crisis showed no sign of abating. The latest casualties were in the capital Dhaka and enraged protesters set at least four vehicles ablaze and damaged several others, witnesses said. Protest leaders said that a man was killed after a police car drove through a crowd that had defied a ban on demonstrations in the capital. They said that authorities appeared to be letting the situation deteriorate so the army could be called in. "You (President) don't go for any more people to die, we have given enough blood --I want to say that the people of this country, whenever they demand for anything, they always achieved that and we will achieve that for what we are struggling," Matia Chowdhury, former agriculture minister. The protesters, mainly members of a 14-party alliance led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, are demanding the removal of the chief election commissioner and his deputies before the general election in January. The alliance says the election officials are sympathetic towards the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of Begum Khaleda Zia, who ended her five-year term as prime minister last month. On Monday, the interim administration headed by President Iajuddin Ahmed offered to hold talks with the leaders of the main political parties to end an indefinite transport blockade of the country that began on Sunday (November 12). Lajuddin has made no public comment on the demand to remove the chief election commissioner M.A. Aziz, although Aziz himself has said he will not resign. The caretaker government has said it would deploy the army, if needed, to keep order. Bangladeshis consider the army a neutral force, though they have occasionally intervened in domestic politics. Supporters of Hasina massed on the outskirts of Dhaka, Chittagong and other cities despite a police ban on rallies. At least 20 others were wounded in battles with police at Narayanganj town, 20 km (12 miles) from Dhaka, and southeastern town of Cox's Bazar on Monday, witnesses said.

ITN Source | November 14, 2006

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