20000203

BD paralysed by opposition strike, bomb kills one

DHAKA: Bangladesh was largely paralysed on Wednesday by an opposition strike protesting a law designed to combat lawlessness, and police reported one man killed and 13 wounded in bomb explosions.

Police said the bombs, in offices of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), were being assembled for use in the strike.

BNP leaders said the bombs were tossed into their offices but gave no details.

Police said one man was killed and at least nine were wounded in an explosion on Wednesday in the BNP's office in the capital Dhaka. The dead man was Mohammed Ismail, a BNP activist, police sub-inspector Abul Kashem said.

Dhaka's streets were mostly empty except for rickshaws after the strike, set to last 36 hours.

The country's two stock exchanges, in Dhaka and Chittagong, were closed, officials said. Many offices and schools were shut, and a few banks which were open conducted no business.

Steel-helmeted riot police were deployed in Dhaka as many residents caught buses leaving the city before the strike started. Paramilitary troops in jeeps and other vehicles were also out in force to guard against violence, witnesses said.

In Chittagong, the country's main port, the strike disrupted handling and delivery of goods, officials said. One flight to Chittagong from Dhaka was cancelled but trains operated normally, transport officials said.

Home-made bombs exploded intermittently in Chittagong but no casualties were reported in these incidents in the first few hours of the strike, Chittagong police said.

Police said nearly 100 people were injured on Tuesday in clashes between opposition activists and police in northern towns of Rajshahi, Pabna and Mymensigh, and Feni in the southeast.

Opposition groups campaigning for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and early elections threatened a crippling strike against the anti-lawlessness legislation.

Former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, Hasina's main rival and head of the BNP, called the legislation a "black law."

Passed by parliament in the opposition's absence on Sunday, it makes offences such as halting traffic and damaging property punishable by up to 14 years hard labour in prison.

Opposition parties argue the law, which also provides for stringent penalties for a range of other offences, is aimed at taming Hasina's political foes rather than tackling crime.

Khaleda has led a campaign of strikes and blockades to try to topple the government since Hasina came to power in 1996. The next elections are due in 2001.-Reuters