Three die, some 60 hurt during Bangladesh protest

DHAKA (Reuter): Three people were shot dead and about 60 injured, many by gunshots, when some 15,000 opposition activists marched to the government secretariat in Dhaka yesterday in defiance of a ban, police and doctors said.

Witnesses said a shootout started between young militants from the Awami League, Bangladesh's main opposition party, and unidentified gunmen who burst onto the street while hundreds of riot police stood around.

"We did not fire a single shot but two people were gunned down," said one police officer speaking at the scene of the shooting, before a third victim died in hospital.

One witness told reporters gunmen on the roof of a house opened fire at people on the street. Outraged protesters then pulled down small roadside shops and set them ablaze.

Hospitals said some 60 injured were brought in, half with bullet wounds. "It has been a hell of a bloody affair," said one doctor at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

One of the injured, Mohammad Zakir, alleged that he was attacked by pro-government activists.

Earlier police fired at least 100 tear gas shells outside the office of the Awami League near the secretariat, witnesses said. Protesters hurled dozens of home-made bombs in a running battle with police. One young man had his leg blown off.

Police beat up activists on the street and then whisked them away in vans. Police said 30 of their officers were injured.

Too harsh

The protest and a separate one near the Election Commission building were organized by the League and the opposition Jatiya party to try to force the government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to hold early elections.

The next general election is not due until March 1996.

League leaders blamed the violence on the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and said they might take tougher action.

Rashed Khan Menon, leader of the opposition Workers Party and a member of parliament, accused the government of "acting too harshly."

"Staging a protest is a democratic right and no one has the right to snatch it away," he said at a hospital.

The government on Wednesday had imposed a 24-hour ban on rallies in the capital and deployed some 3,000 riot police and paramilitary soldiers around the city.

The protest around the Election Commission building, which the Jatiya Party of ousted president Hossain Mohammad Ershad was staging, was relatively peaceful.

Police and witnesses said some 10,000 people gathered to shout complaints that the commission was not neutral in recent polls. The protesters called for Khaleda to quit, saying she had failed to control corruption and guarantee basic rights.

They also criticized the election commission for allegedly allowing fraud in a recent by-election in northwestern Magura district, in which the League and Jatiya candidates lost to the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

The prime minister, who took over following the first free election in early 1991, said opposition parties were trying to destroy democracy and retard economic progress.