Bangladesh transport blockade starts taking hold

DHAKA, Nov 20 (Reuters) A transport blockade aimed at forcing controversial election officials to step down or be removed began taking hold across Bangladesh early today, just days after the previous blockade caused havoc.

Witnesses said hundreds of activists of a 14-party alliance led by Sheikh Hasina, chief of Awami League, squatted on highways linking the capital Dhaka with the main port in Chittagong city and other main towns.

Police and the elite Rapid Action Battalion watched the chanting protesters but did not try to disperse them, the witnesses said.

Two people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes with police and between rival activists during the previous stoppage last week.

The crippling blockades are organised by the 14-party alliance, which is determined to boot out the poll officials ahead of national elections in January.

The alliance accuses the officials of being biased towards Hasina's rivals, particularly the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and its leader Begum Khaleda Zia.

Khaleda stepped down last month at the end of her five-year term and the country is now being run by an interim administration headed by the president.

Hasina believes her alliance will win January's election if the poll officials step aside.

Last week's four-day blockade shut everything from schools to ports and many people left Dhaka ahead of the latest stoppage fearing violence or being stuck in the city.

Police ordered an indefinite ban on carrying of weapons and sticks during rallies or demonstrations in Dhaka and other main cities from Monday.

LAST-MINUTE MEETINGS Late yesterday, Hasina and her party's general secretary, Abdul Jalil, met President Iajuddin Ahmed but the gathering failed to soothe the annoyed alliance.

''A fresh countrywide indefinite transport blockade will be enforced from 7 a m (0630 IST) today as the president failed to take any step to reorganise the election commission,'' Jalil later told reporters.

''We will not accept any election schedule without reforms,'' Jalil quoted Hasina as telling the president.

Advisers of the interim government also met the president last night.

''The president will send a high-powered team to the election commission today,'' Mahbubul Alam, adviser in charge of the information ministry, told reporters at the presidential palace.

''They will talk to the Chief Election Commissioner (M A Aziz) and other commissioners,'' he added, without saying if the team would request them to step down.

Iajuddin is expected to address the nation in a couple of days to explain how he planned to resolve the crisis.

REUTERS DKS VV0821