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Police battle protesters with tear gas in Dhaka

A boy looks at a police van burnt by protesters in Kanchpur, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, yesterday. Riot police fired tear gas at thousands of stone-throwing protesters demanding Prime Minister Khaleda Zia resign. PHOTO: AP

Riot police fired bullets and tear gas at thousands of stone-throwing protesters demanding the prime minister resign in the Bangladesh capital yesterday, leaving dozens of people wounded, witnesses and news reports said.

The protesters from an opposition alliance were fired upon as they tried to block the entry points to Dhaka as part of a campaign to pressure Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to step down and to demand electoral reforms.

The alliance, led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, accuses the government of corruption and authoritarianism and of trying to use the election commission to guarantee victory in the next election due in January 2007. The government denies the charges.

Clashes were reported in at least five points across the city, according to Associated Press reporters at the scenes and private TV station ATN Bangla.

At Kanchpur on the southeastern outskirts of Dhaka, police fired rifles and used tear gas and batons when about 3,000 opposition activists gathered on a highway leading to the capital, witnesses said.

The protesters responded by throwing stones and setting several vehicles on fire. At least 30 people were wounded in Kanchpur.

Similar clashes were reported in Tongi and Gabtali, the two other key entry points to Dhaka in the north.

At Tongi, police charged demonstrators with batons, leaving at least 50 people wounded, including five journalists covering the violence, ATN Bangla reported.

Violence also broke out in Dhaka's central Dhanmandi and Kalabagan districts, close to the Hasina's office.

Many commuters were stranded in Dhaka and around the city as the protests disrupted public transpiration, news reports said.

Police officials were not immediately available to comment.

Authorities deployed about 20,000 security officials in and around the city of 10 million people to prevent any violence, the country's police chief, Abdul Qaiyum, said Saturday.

"We will do whatever required to keep the law and order under control," Qaiyum told reporters.

The opposition has launched a campaign of general strikes and street protests to demand the resignation of Zia's four-party coalition government, as well as an early election and election commission reforms.
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