Bangladesh's interim chief set to hold fair poll

DHAKA, Jan 23 (Reuters) Bangladesh's interim administration chief asked top bureaucrats today to shun any activity that would cause their neutrality to be questioned in a country struggling to hold a credible election.

''The officials of the state should avoid any activity that would raise questions about their neutrality,'' Fakhruddin Ahmed, told top bureaucrats at his first meeting with them.

In the meeting held two days after his televised speech to the nation, Fakhruddin warned that ''action would be taken against officials if they were found partisan''.

He said his administration was trying to hold a free and fair election as soon as possible after creating a level playing field for all political players.

But in his speech on Sunday he did not set a deadline for holding an election that was originally set for January 22. The poll was suspended because of a boycott by a political alliance led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Fakhruddin said he would hand over power to an elected government at the earliest.

Hasina's alliance asked that the list of registered voters be reviewed to expunge fraudulent names and demanded reforms at the election commission, including the removal of commissioners it accuses of being biased towards her rival Begum Khaleda Zia, the immediate past prime minister.

Fakhruddin, who took office 11 days ago, also promised to fight corruption and make the election free from ''black (undeclared) money''.

''I ask you, the state employees, to perform duties sincerely so that we can hold a free, fair and credible election,'' he said.

The multi-party alliance led by Hasina's Awami League hailed Fakhruddin's Sunday speech, but Khaleda's BNP said it was just rhetorical and had nothing new.

Both parties, however, asked for the election to be held within the shortest possible time.

Police and an elite security force, the Rapid Action Battalion, arrested at least 50 people on Tuesday, mostly activists and petty leaders of the BNP and Awami League across the country.

Several guns and ammunition and other weapons were seized.

''They were arrested for specific charges and possession of illegal weapons,'' a police officer said. More than 500 people have been arrested since Sunday.

Bangladesh plunged into its worst political crisis in years before Fakhruddin took charge from President Iajuddin Ahmed -- who stepped down as head of the caretaker administration under pressure from Hasina's alliance -- and put the country under a state of emergency.

At least 45 people were killed and hundreds injured in political violence since late October, after Khaleda ended her five-year term as prime minister and handed power to the caretaker.

REUTERS AB VC1935