Violent clashes after opposition members arrested in police raids

Описание: (7 Jan 2014) Tensions remained high in Bangladesh on Tuesday following one of the most violent national elections in the country's history.
In Rajshahi supporters from the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic political party, clashed with riot police who used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
Supporters of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) also took to the streets of the city, some 154 miles (248 kilometres) southeast of the capital, Dhaka, calling for a general strike.
Bangladeshi police, meanwhile, said they conducted raids and arrested three leading opposition members on Tuesday, further exacerbating political tensions after Sunday's bloody vote.
Khandaker Muhbub Hossain, a well-known lawyer and adviser to opposition leader Khaleda Zia, was picked up outside the National Press Club in Dhaka where he had attended a roundtable discussion that was critical of the government, according to a police spokesman.
Nazimuddin Alam, a lawmaker from Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and another official, Fazlul Huq, were also detained in raids in Dhaka's Baridhara area, the spokesman said.
It was not immediately clear why they were detained or if any formal charges would be brought against them.
Hossain's wife denounced his arrest, speaking to reporters outside the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police where she said he was being held.
"He is a renowned lawyer. Many of those who have arrested and detained him here have in fact got been released from the same place with his help in the past. Today Bangladesh cannot be governed in this way - by arresting a renowned lawyer like him," she said.
Political violence has convulsed the country in recent months as opposition activists staged attacks, strikes and transportation blockades to protest the government.
In the the city of Sylhet, 120 miles (192 kilometres) to the northeast of the capital, streets were largely deserted and shops closed up on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Awami League party won 232 of the 300 elected seats, according to the country's Election Commission , far more than the 151 required to form a government.
Because of the opposition boycott, about half the seats were uncontested.
The opposition had demanded that Hasina's government resign so a neutral administration could oversee the polls, saying Hasina might rig the election if she stayed in office. She denied that.
The political gridlock plunges Bangladesh deeper into turmoil and economic stagnation, and could lead to more violence in the deeply impoverished country of 160 million.


#Bangladesh #Violent #clashes
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...