Mob attacks Bangladesh opposition chief Khaleda while election campaigning

Police in Bangladesh are investigating a mob attack on the car of Bangladesh’s principal opposition leader on Monday, for the duration of which gun shots had been reportedly fired.

Attackers armed with iron rods surrounded the vehicle of Khaleda Zia for the duration of an election rally and then shot at it because the vehicle sped away, officers said.

Photos and images from regional media showed a group of guys striking cars in Zia’s motorcade with rods and wood staves.

The sixty nine-12 months-old former high minister was unharmed however the attack highlighted tensions within the politically unstable south Asian nation the place Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) has intensified protests geared toward forcing the high minister, sheikh Hasina, to quit and maintain a brand new countrywide election after a disputed 2014 ballot.

Mohammad Shamsuddin, a BNP spokesman, told Reuters information agency Zia had been addressing a rally for a mayoral election within the capital, Dhaka, from her auto when the guys tried to attack it.

Shots had been fired at the bullet-proof car because it drove off, Shamsuddin mentioned.
Khaleda’s bodyguard and at the least five different folks had been injured in the assault and needed to receive clinic treatment, he delivered.

Zia “survived since it used to be a bullet-proof vehicle”, her personal secretary, Shimul Biswas, who was once with her for the duration of the attack, said.

Police mentioned they have been looking into the claim of gunfire.

“Some persons mentioned they heard gunshots throughout the clashes. We’re investigating the matter,” a spokesman, Jahangir Alam, mentioned.

Executive officers said the assault had been provoked by using Zia’s protection detail, and had involved businessmen irritated at losses as a result of latest unrest blamed on the BNP.

After the assault, the BNP called for a nationwide normal strike on Wednesday to protest against the assault on its chief, besides in Dhaka and town of Chittagong, which each maintain mayoral elections subsequent week.

Greater than a hundred and twenty humans have been killed and 1000's injured in months of political violence, which has obvious a crusade of petrol bomb assaults on autos, transport blockades and strikes via the opposition aimed toward toppling the federal government.

Police have tried to quell the unrest through firing live rounds. There are additionally reviews of popular detentions with out trial by protection forces.

The BNP refused to take part in last 12 months’s basic election, saying it was rigged.

The protests are meant to force Hasina to resign and make contact with a brand new common election under a impartial administration.

Hasina, leader of the Awami League, has refused the BNP needs she step down, instead tightening her grip via arresting key opposition leaders and clamping down on media relevant of her executive.

The feuding in Bangladesh will also be traced again over many years. The nation has been dominated through either Hasina or Zia , both from strong political households, for virtually 23 years.

Tensions had been heightened by means of loss of life sentences handed on leading Islamists over their position in the 1971 independence conflict where Bangladesh broke far from Pakistan.

Hasina is the daughter of the wartime chief sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Zia is the widow of Ziaur Rahman, the conflict’s high-quality-recognized Bangladeshi army commander, who later grew to become president.

The unrest, estimated to have fee Bangladesh the an identical of 0.Fifty five% of its countrywide output, will reason additional problems for the country’s garment manufacturers.

The enterprise has been rocked by way of a series of failures, including a manufacturing unit give way in April 2013 that killed more than 1,100 workers. The deaths printed the tough working stipulations in an enterprise that employs 4m Bangladeshis and supplies clothing to main western outlets. source theguardian