DHAKA, Nov 14, (Agencies): Dozens were injured in violent clashes between protesters and police in major cities across Bangladesh Sunday as a nationwide strike called by the main opposition party brought the country to a standstill. The clashes erupted as Bangladesh Nationalist Party activists staged day-long protests over the eviction of BNP leader and former two-time premier Khaleda Zia from her home on Saturday, triggering late-night rioting. Officers fired rubber bullets and used batons against strike supporters in front of the party headquarters in Dhaka and its regional office in the second biggest city of Chittagong, police said. A former commerce minister was among a dozen injured in Chittagong, the country’s main port city, while a police inspector was hit by a small bomb in northern Mymensingh city, local police told AFP.

A police van was burnt out by a petrol bomb in Dhaka, where security was tight with at least 10,000 heavily armed policemen and 2,000 members of an elite Rapid Action Battalion out in force, police spokesman Walid Hossain said. Hossain said police swung into action at several sites in the capital, using rubber bullets, tear gas and batons after opposition activists became violent. “Barring these isolated incidents, the strike was largely peaceful,” he said. At least 100 opposition activists have been arrested on charges of attacking police with small bombs and bricks and damaging vehicles in cities and towns across the country, police officers told AFP.

Security forces barricaded the BNP headquarters in central Dhaka with barbed wire and used coloured water to douse lawyers supporting the strike outside the country’s supreme court. Shops, businesses and schools were closed in all the major cities and towns across the country, and police said road transport in Dhaka and major cities had almost ground to a halt. Bus and lorry services have also been cut, snapping links between the capital and other cities and towns and stranding millions of people who planned to visit village homes to celebrate Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

On Saturday Dhaka erupted into violence after news spread that Zia has been evicted from the Dhaka home where she has been living for 38 years. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the BNP supporters who went on the rampage torching and damaging dozens of vehicles. At least 21 people were detained. Officials said Zia willingly left the sprawling house — leased to her by the government after her husband, president Ziaur Rahman, was murdered in 1981 — as a court deadline to vacate the home expired Friday. Zia told reporters on Saturday police officers had entered her bedroom, dragged her out and pushed her into a car.

She said she was removed illegally as the country’s highest court was still hearing an appeal against a lower court’s eviction order. In a statement on Saturday night, the US Embassy said it was “closely monitoring” events related to Zia’s residence in the cantonment.
“We hope that these issues can be resolved through dialogue and established legal procedures. We call on all sides to exercise restraint,” the statement signed by embassy spokesman Patricia Hill said.
Local television and radio channels reported sporadic violence in outlying districts including Noakhali, Rajshahi, Barisal, Sirajganj and Narsingdi, where police said about a dozen people were injured and at least 20 detained.

Many workers observered a national day-long strike called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), severely disrupting transport in the capital city of 12 million. Several thousand people hoping to travel to villages for Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim religious festival, were unable to leave Dhaka.
The stoppage was called by the BNP in protest against the eviction of BNP leader and former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia from her home at the Dhaka military barracks.
Sunday is a working day in Bangladesh. Many offices and banks opened with only a handful of employees to beat the strike, and the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges were open for trade, officials and brokers said. Work at the country’s main port of Chittagong was partially disrupted.

“The political lull has ended and we are back in the days of violence and disruption,” said Abdul Wahab, a businessman.
Fighting started on Saturday after BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia was ordered by a court to leave the house she had occupied since her husband, former army chief and president Ziaur Rahman, was killed in an abortive coup in 1981.
At least three people were killed in an overnight suicide bomb attack west of the capital at the home of a lawmaker from the ruling Awami League. It was unclear whether that incident was directly related to Khaleda’s eviction.
“We oppose both the eviction (of Khaleda) and the strike (called by the BNP),” said Asadullah Habib, who works for a private company. “These are games by politicians, in which ordinary people have been caught hostage,” he said.