New strike for Bangladesh

Press, 26 November 1987, Page 10

New strike for Bangladesh

NZPA-Reuter Dhaka Bangladesh Opposition groups are planning another general strike next week aimed at toppling President Hossain Mohammad Ershad, who has survived two weeks of protests by his political rivals. As the Opposition called for the new strike, nearly 50 home-made bombs packed with metal fragments exploded in Dhaka. No casualties were reported. Twenty-one Opposition parties campaigning for Mr Ershad’s downfall said they would stage a 72hour national stoppage from 6 a.m. on Sunday, continuing to pressure the President with huge financial losses to the country’s fragile economy.

“The new strike is designed to follow up the successful general strikes during the current protests launched on November 10 and to exert pressure on Mr Ershad to resign,” they said in a joint statement. Police said one man was killed at Gazipur near Dhaka shortly before the latest eight-hour strike ended yesterday afternoon, raising the number of people killed in bomb attacks to 11 during the Opposition protests. Hundreds of activists have also been injured in battles between Government and Opposition supporters. More than 1500 opposition leaders and party workers have been

arrested, police added. The Information Minister, Anwar Zahid, said that Bangladesh had been losing nearly SUSSO million ($80.5 million) in production losses and export cuts every day during the strikes. "The economy is about to collapse. Such stoppages will treble the present number of 17 million unemployed Bangladeshis by the next year,” he told journalists. He also said foreign banks had stopped advancing credit to Bangladesh for trading because of the political tensions. Despite bomb blasts and fears of more violence, people and traffic poured into the streets of

Dhaka after the suffocating stoppages. Shops, factories and offices reopened. Trains, river ferries and airline flights were operating again to the relief of millions of people stranded in many parts of the country. Mr Ershad, aged 57, a former army general who seized power in a 1982 bloodless coup and restored civil rule last November after winning a controversial Presidential election, said he would not resign under pressure. He asked police on Tuesday to arrest bombmakers and political activists responsible for the anti-Government agitation.