Bangladesh army patrols Dhaka ahead of blockade

DHAKA, Jan 6 (Reuters) Army troops patrolled the streets of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka today ahead of a countrywide transport blockade called by parties boycotting parliamentary elections in just over two weeks.

The country's interim government in charge of holding a free and fair election has said it will use troops for keeping peace in the run-up to the vote on January 22.

At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured in clashes between supporters of immediate past prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia and her rival Sheikh Hasina, also a former prime minister.

Khaleda, chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), ended her five-year tenure as prime minister in late October and handed power to the interim government headed by President Iajuddin Ahmed.

Hasina, who heads the Awami League and a multi-party alliance, accuses Iajuddin of favouring Khaleda in the coming polls and demanded his resignation as chief of the caretaker authority.

The alliance has called for the blockade tomorrow, as well as other protests, in a latest bid to force Iajuddin and some election officials to step down.

Iajuddin remained unmoved while the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami stood firmly with the president.

A S M Shahjahan, an adviser to the previous caretaker government in 2001 and a former police chief, said the country was headed for a period of serious trouble.

''I am surprised that the concerned authorities are totally indifferent to the situation,'' he told the private Channel-I television today.

Mohammad Ali, acting chief of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), urged Iajuddin to take immediate steps to resolve the ''ongoing crisis politically, instead of by using force, before it is too late.

''Political unrest and intolerance will crush the backbone of the poor nation's economy and cause exports to collapse,'' he told a business leaders' meeting.

Security forces were on alert across the country of 140 million people as fears of violence heightened ahead of the blockade.

EU DEEPLY CONCERNED In a statement today, the European Union said it was ''deeply concerned and disappointed by recent developments relating to the parliamentary elections in Bangladesh, in particular the decision by major parties to withdraw from participating (in the polls) on January 22.'' ''A failure of the current electoral process would be a major setback for democracy in Bangladesh and for the international credibility of the country,'' the EU said, adding that ''it further raises the prospect of protracted instability costing the country in human, development and economic terms''.

The long-running political crisis deepened further after the Awami alliance decided to boycott the election, saying they were convinced it would not be free and fair.

The Jatiya Party of former army ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) led by former president A Q M Badruddoza Chowdhury have also decided to boycott the polls.

They all want new election schedules to be announced after the list of registered voters had been overhauled to drop fake names.

The US-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs last month said the list currently had 12.2 million names entered in duplicate or by mistake.

Reuters AB GC1508