Dhaka court grants bail to riot accused

Reuters/Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia

A court in Bangladesh granted bail yesterday to 15 opposition members detained on charges of setting off bombs and attacking vehicles during a general strike six weeks ago, easing a political deadlock threatening the country’s stability.Those ordered freed included Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary-general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former premier Begum Khaleda Zia.Khaleda’s supporters have called five day-long general strikes since April, many of them marked by street clashes, to demand explanations for the disappearance of a young opposition activist.They also want the reinstatement of what they see as a bias-free electoral system rescinded by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.Bitter rivals Khaleda and Hasina have taken turns in power in the politically volatile and poor Asian country since 1991. Elections are due next year.Police detained 22 leaders of the BNP and allied parties at the most recent strike. Seven had already been bailed, all close associates of Khaleda.“They will come out of jail soon,” a defence lawyer at the Dhaka Session Judge’s Court told reporters, referring to the 15 detainees.The judge ordered all 15 to appear in court on July 26 to face charges of arson and vandalism. The BNP says the charges are false and motivated by a vendetta against Khaleda.The opposition had threatened to launch an open-ended strike after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, starting in mid-July, unless the detained leaders were released and all charges dropped.Khaleda demands restoration of a system putting a non-party interim government in place ahead of an election on grounds that any poll overseen by Hasina’s Awami League would be rigged.Hasina’s five-year tenure is due to end in December 2013, but a failure to reach a compromise could prompt the opposition to press for an early vote.Any violence in the run-up to an election could prompt intervention by the military, who set up an interim authority in 2007 after strikes that led to cancellation of an election. That administration staged a crackdown on corruption, and both Hasina and Khaleda were jailed for several months.There is little sign that either woman will give ground.“Bangladesh faces growing political violence in the lead-up to the 2013 elections unless the government takes a more conciliatory approach towards the opposition,” the International Crisis Group think tank said in a statement this week.“A small window of opportunity remains for reconciliation, but the ball is in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s court,” said Sidney Jones, the ICG’s senior adviser on Asia. “If she does not reach out to the opposition, Bangladesh will be back to the zero-sum politics that so many hoped had ended in 2008.”