BANGLADESH: OPPOSITION PARTIES CALL FOR GENERAL STRIKE

Описание: (2 Mar 1996) Natural Sound

Bangladesh's opposition has called for a general strike, threatening to paralyse the nation- unless Prime Minister Khaleda Zia agrees to quit.

As Opposition parties called for a strike from March 9 for an indefinite period, Government security forces clamped down on demonstrators.

Scores were killed and injured as opposition parties called upon the government to resign and make way for elections and democracy.

For the first time the Bangladesh opposition has threatened to close down the country indefinitely, and the move appears aimed at pushing the government into a final confrontation.

Sheik Hasina, the opposition leader who is heading the anti-government campaign, addressed some 10,000 supporters in the capital Dhaka.

The large crowd was told that the opposition would not leave the streets until the downfall of the government of Khaleda Zia.

The opposition, which led a nationwide strike that froze commerce from Saturday through Wednesday, said the nation will be shut down indefinitely from March 9.

Strikes, usually for one to three days, have severely disrupted the impoverished nation's economy and intensified political turmoil.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas after opposition activists smashed vehicles during a protest rally. At least 10 people were injured.

In Chittagong, Bangladesh's second-largest city and commercial centre, security forces fired into a mob and killed at least two people protesting at the arrest of the city's popular mayor on charges of inciting violence.

The latest killings have brought the death toll to 15 since Saturday.

An Associated Press photographer who was briefly detained by police said he witnessed security forces firing on demonstrators who tried to gather on the main streets.

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