Poll-bound Bangladesh slips further,16 killed in political violence

An autorickshaw driver died in Chittagong when his vehicle turned turtle after he was chased by activists of the main opposition BNP and its right-wing ally Jamaat-e-Islami. They also torched another autorickshaw,injuring two persons.

A leader of Awami League and a member of a union council were killed in clashes at Kaliganj on the outskirts of Dhaka.

Earlier in the day,a Jamaat activist died in clashes with security personnel in southwestern Satkhira,where Jamaat workers allegedly hacked to death two Awami League workers on Tuesday.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies had launched a 48-hour nationwide blockade of highways,railways and waterways on Tuesday to force the government to put off the polls scheduled for January 5,2014.

They demanded that the elections should be shelved until the government accepts their demand for the polls to be conducted by a non-party interim set-up.

Violence that erupted after the Election Commission announced the poll schedule on Monday claimed 10 lives.

Opposition supporters went on the rampage,blocking roads and ripping up railway tracks and halting bus and ferry services.

Railway Minister Mujibul Haque said the state-run service incurred a loss at least Taka 300 million as opposition activists had torched a stationary train,uprooted tracks and caused the derailment of a train. The protest also forced authorities to suspend trains on several routes.

The opposition is spearheading a street campaign for installing a non-party government with an “acceptable person” as its head instead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,saying elections under her would not be “credible”.

Hasina and her Awami League party have rejected the demand,describing it as “unconstitutional” and asking the opposition to join the poll-time multi-party set-up.