Violent Clashes As Strike Cripples Bangladesh

The political crisis in Bangladesh deepened today after the third day of pitched street battles between rival parties left a trail of destruction and one person dead.

Rioting in the northern town of Bogra, seen as a stronghold of the ruling Bangladesh National party (BNP), saw one man stabbed to death. Three people were killed and around 200 wounded in clashes earlier this week.

A nationwide strike, called by the opposition Awani League, has shut the country down and many businesses, shops and petrol pumps remain closed -sealing off the country's capital Dhaka.

The pivot of politics in Bangladesh, the world's third-largest Muslim nation, is a bitter relationship between Sheikh Hasina, who leads the Awami League, and her rival Begum Khaleda Zia of the BNP. Both have been prime minister and both came to power on a wave of public sympathy following coups that eliminated male relatives. Neither has spoken to each other for 15 years.

"It is a hatred, one that burns so hot it threatens [Bangladesh]," said one diplomat. At the root of the current bloody dispute is the choice of the caretaker government, headed by the country's president, Iajuddin Ahmed, which took over from a coalition led by the BNP.

After a few days the main opposition decided that the interim administration had failed "to prove its neutrality". The caretaker government's role is to oversee elections in January. The opposition fears that the president will favour the BNP and rig the ballot.

The result is that since mid-November the country has been plunged into violent confrontations. Diplomats in Dhaka say that the president has fumbled badly - a cack-handed attempt to restore calm earlier this month by deploying the army without telling his advisors backfired. Within hours the troops had returned to their barracks.

In recent days Ms Hasina has targeted the chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, and his deputies, accusing them of bias towards the BNP. Her supporters have enforced an indefinite transport stoppage since the beginning of the week to press demands for the dismissal of the officials.

The BNP and its allied Islamist parties has defended Mr Aziz, saying that he holds a constitutional post and any decision to resign is up to him.