AFP
Dhaka
Bangladesh authorities yesterday threatened to bring murder charges against besieged opposition leader Khaleda Zia and arrested her deputy over accusations that they incited a nationwide wave of deadly violence.
A day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused Zia of trying to trigger anarchy, a minister said her arch rival should expect a murder charge over an arson attack which left three people fighting for their lives.
The threat, which comes after four activists from Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) were killed in the mounting unrest on Monday, was made while the opposition leader remained confined to her offices in Dhaka, barred from leaving by police.
The three people injured in the alleged BNP attack in Dhaka last week were in an auto-rickshaw that was firebombed by protesters — a frequent tactic of BNP hardliners who are trying to topple the prime minister.
“She should prepare for a murder case,” Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said in comments.
Confined and padlocked in her office in an upmarket Dhaka district, Zia on Monday called a nationwide non-stop transport blockade in an effort to topple the government and pave the way for inclusive polls.
As supporters took to the streets to clash with officers, police arrested BNP secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir over a series of violent protests by
supporters.
“He was arrested on charges of arson, bombings and vandalism,” Shiblee Noman, assistant commissioner of Dhaka police, said.
Alamgir, the party’s de facto number two, had been holed up in the National Press Club since Monday but was arrested as he tried to drive away from the building.
Minutes before his arrest, Alamgir had denounced Hasina’s government and renewed calls to enforce a nationwide transport blockade.
“This unelected government … has turned the country into a prison,” he said.
Police have virtually sealed off all the exit gates of the press club in central Dhaka since Monday afternoon after Alamgir spoke at a rally of a group of journalists, lawyers and other professionals.
Hasina and Zia, who have between them ruled Bangladesh for most of the last three decades, have a notoriously poisonous relationship and frequently exchange insults and barbs about each others’ families.
Ties hit a new low after the BNP and 19 other opposition parties boycotted last year’s elections, claiming the contest would be rigged.
Awami League party leader Hasina, who has been in power since 2009, refused their demands for the polls to be organised by a neutral caretaker government as with previous elections.
Zia has been a virtual prisoner since Saturday, with the gates of her compound padlocked and a phalanx of riot police posted outside.
In brief comments on Monday to reporters who managed to scale the walls of her compound, Zia accused her rival of trying to cling to power by force in a country that has seen more than a dozen coups in its 43-year history.
In an address to the nation on Monday night, a defiant Hasina laid the blame for the latest unrest firmly at Zia’s feet.
“I am urging the BNP leader to stop these bomb and grenade attacks, these acts of sabotage, and killings, of arson and damage to property,” Hasina said.
Although there were no reports of deadly violence yesterday, police said they had fired rubber bullets and tear gas at scores of BNP supporters when they tried to mount a transport blockade outside the capital.
Two police officers were injured during clashes with Islamists, who are part of Zia’s cadre of opposition parties.
TV network shut after Tarique speech
Bangladesh authorities ordered a television network off air and arrested its boss yesterday after it broadcast a speech by the son of opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
While police said the detention of the ETV chairman was prompted by its airing of “pornographic” material, a senior editor at the channel dismissed the official explanation as a smokescreen.
The move added to growing tensions in the politically volatile nation after a spate of deadly violence surrounding the first anniversary of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s re-election.
In a move that was likely to have infuriated Hasina’s government, ETV broadcast a speech by Zia’s eldest son Tarique Rahman, the two-times former premier’s political heir apparent who is based in London.
Shortly afterwards, cable companies were told to cut off ETV, news editor Majumdar Jewel said. While cameras were still rolling, Jewel said “operators have stopped broadcasting us in most parts of the country”.
Police spokesman Masudur Rahman said that Abdus Salam, the owner of what is Bangladesh’s oldest private network, had been arrested after a woman complained ETV had broadcast “pornographic images” of her in an investigative news programme.
But Jewel pointed out that the woman’s complaint was filed nearly two months ago.
“She made the complaint two days after we ran the show on November 6,” Jewel said. “We aired some blurred images, which is within the journalistic norms.”
Authorities issued dozens of arrest warrants against Tarique Rahman last month after he questioned the role of the prime minister’s father in Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is regarded as the country’s independence hero but Zia’s son — who has been living in exile since 2008 - claimed that he was in fact a stooge of Islamabad.
Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, centre, secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is escorted following his arrest in Dhaka yesterday.
