Bangladesh MP's Death Fuels Political Unrest

Sat May 8, 6:54 AM ET

DHAKA (Reuters) - Protests over the killing of an opposition member of parliament by gunmen set off widespread violence in Bangladesh on Saturday where two men were shot dead during clashes with police.

Police said the two men were killed as security forces tried to disperse angry crowds who torched several empty railway coaches and buses, shops and buildings on Friday night at Tongi, a railway junction and industrial town 12 miles north of capital Dhaka .

The violence erupted as thousands of people attacked police with iron rods, knives and sticks, police and witnesses said.

They also barricaded a highway linking the capital to the northern districts after unidentified gunmen killed local MP Ahsanullah Master, a senior member and labor leader of opposition Awami League party.

Police said the shootout in which Ahsanullah and another man died occurred while he was speaking at a party rally on Friday afternoon at Tongi, which is his constituency. At least six others were wounded.

Security was tightened in and around Tongi as Ahsanullah's followers prepared for his funeral later on Saturday.

Police fired tear gas and charged Awami activists protesting against the deaths on Friday evening in Dhaka , and did the same again on Saturday after thousands attended a funeral prayer for the slain leader in the capital, witnesses said.

Brick-throwing protesters on Saturday damaged about 40 vehicles in downtown Dhaka , witnesses said.

A second funeral prayer was held at Tongi on Saturday afternoon, before Ahsanullah's body was taken to his village home for burial.

"At least 25,000 people attended the Tongi funeral, although police and other security forces had put the town under virtual curfew," said a reporter at the scene.

He said mangled and burned vehicles littered roads at Tongi while shocked residents said they feared more violence.

Awami League has called for a general strike on Sunday -- a working day in mostly Muslim Bangladesh -- to protest against the killings.

Awami chief Sheikh Hasina, now on a visit to the United States , termed Ahsanullah's killing as "yet another example of how insecure politicians are under the rule of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia," and reiterated her call for Khaleda to give up power.

Khaleda on Friday condemned the killing of Ahsanullah, 55, and asked police to investigate and arrest those responsible.

Key leaders of Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) also expressed their grief and condolences over the killings and urged Awami supporters not to take law into their hands using the MP's death as a pretext.

The killings came a day before overseas donors were due to meet in Dhaka to discuss the country's economic performance and review law and order before pledging new aid for the 2004-05 (July-June) fiscal year.

Among issues they would discuss are law and order, human rights and corruption, officials said

Financial Express

Three more die: Hartal called for tomorrow
AL lawmaker Ahsan Ullah assassinated
FE Report
5/8/2004

Opposition Awami League (AL) lawmaker Ahsan Ullah Master was gunned down by a group of terrorists in broad daylight at Tongi Friday, which triggered widespread violence in the industrial town.
The brutal incident also left three more people dead, sources said.
The AL has given a call for a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal tomorrow (Sunday) in protest against the heinous killing.
However, towns where municipal polls are scheduled for Sunday have been exempted from the hartal.
Ahsan Ullah, also president of the Sramik League, came under the armed attack at the biennial council meeting of the Tongi unit of the Sechchhasebok League on the Abdul Majid High School premises at around 12:30 pm.
More than fifteen persons were critically injured in the attack. Five of them were admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with bullet wounds.
President Iajuddin Ahmed, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia have condoled the death of Awami League MP.
Meanwhile Awami League President and Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina has strongly condemned and protested the killing of Ahsanullah.
In a statement, she alleged that at the directive of the top quarters of BNP-Jamaat alliance, their patronised terrorists shot dead the valiant freedom fighter.
She also alleged that the killing of Ahsanullah was pre-planned and part of a design of the BNP-Jamaat alliance to eliminate Awami League by killing its popular leaders and organisers.
The opposition leader demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment to the killers of Ahsanullah.
LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan strongly condemned the killing of the MP.
In a statement, the BNP secretary general said the killers would be brought to justice and directed the police and the local administration to hunt down the culprits.
Denouncing arson attacks at different parts of Gazipur, he said the real incident could not be hushed up through such activities. "The government will thwart with iron hand any conspiracy to create anarchy," he said.
In another statement, Dhaka city Mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka condemned the killing.
The killing sparked off rowdy protests in Tongi as well as in the capital where thousands of protesters went on rampage damaging property and setting fire to motor vehicles, train coaches and BNP and Jamat offices.
The angry protesters also clashed with the police and put up barricades on the Dhaka-Gazipur highway disrupting the railway and road communications between the capital and the industrial town until filing of this report at about 9:00 pm Friday.
The police imposed Section 144 at the killing spot and its adjoining areas to restore law and order.
According to eyewitnesses, the miscreants attacked Ahsan Ullah when he was coming down from the stage after announcing the names of the president and general secretary of the newly formed committee of the local Sechchhasebok League.
"Master and other leaders announced that they would come back to name other members of the committee after the Jum'a prayer. When they were coming down the armed terrorists launched the sudden attack spraying bullets on him and others", said an eyewitness, Solaiman, while talking to the FE.
None could, however, identify the attackers who entered the programme venue from the rear gate of the school and escaped through the same gate safely.
Ahsan Ullah and other injured persons were rushed to the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Hospital where the attending doctors suggested immediate shifting of Ahsan Ullah to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH).
But he succumbed to his bullet injuries despite frantic efforts by doctors at the CMH, the sources said.
The injured persons are identified as Mahfuzur Rahman alias Mahal, a central member of the Jubo League, Sharif, convener of the Tongi Thana Sechchhasebok League, Hashem Mallick (75), Jamal Hossain (35), Sharifuddin (35) and Bablu (14).
Meanwhile an emergency meeting of the Awami League central working committee, chaired by acting president Abdus Samad Azad, also declared a three-day mourning for the slain party MP from today (Saturday).
Briefing newsmen, Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil said: "The killing of Ahasanullah Master is the result of a conspiracy from the top level of the government. Several attempts were also made on him in the past."
Jalil said that as a mark of protest, Ahsanullah's body would not be taken to South Plaza of the Sangsad Bhaban for his namaj-e-janaza. Traditionally, the namaj-e-janaza for the deceased MPs are held at the Sangsad Bhaban South Plaza .
A namaj-e-janaza for the slain lawmaker will be held at Paltan Maidan at 11 am today. After the janaza, a mourning procession with the body will march towards Gazipur Rajbari maidan, where another namaj-e-janaza will be held.
His namaj-e-janaza will also be held at Tongi Biswa Ijtema ground and at his village home in Pubail before burial at the family graveyard.
Besides, Awami League will also hold 'gayebena janaza' at all upazila headquarters today while bring out mourning processions on May 10 in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
Meanwhile widespread violence marked by arson, shootouts and tear gas shelling rocked the industrial towns of Tongi following the incident.
Witnesses said as the news of death of Ahsanullah Master reached Tongi and Gazipur, thousands of men and women, mostly industrial workers, with rods and sticks poured into the streets in violent protests.
Angry mobs went on rampage setting fire to Tongi railway station, several goods and passenger trains at Tongi and Pubail and BNP and Jamaat offices. They also ransacked a cinema hall, houses of local BNP leaders and damaged passing vehicles on the highway.
Train and road communications through Gazipur and Tongi were virtually snapped as mobs put up barricades and removed railway tracks and slippers at several points from Tongi to Pubail.
Mobs fought pitched battles with the riot police and armed police battalion in the troubled area of Tongi and Gazipur.
In Dhaka city, angry Awami League workers staged demonstration at different points as police lobbed tear gas at the protesters in front of Awami League central office at Bangabandhu Avenue in the afternoon. Several vehicles were damaged in the area, witnesses said.
Violent protests also took place in the port city of Chittagong .

Fri May 7,10:53 AM ET

Riot police patrols a street after opposition supporters set fire to a train to protest the killing of lawmaker Ahsanullah Master in Tongi, outside Dhaka , Bangladesh , Friday, May 7, 2004. Gunmen opened fire at an opposition rally outside the capital of Bangladesh on Friday, killing four people including Master, his party and police said. (AP Photo/ Zia Islam)

Anti-Government Strike Hobbles Bangladesh By FARID HOSSAIN
Associated Press Writer
May 9, 2004, 2:23 AM EDT

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- The government put thousands of security forces on the streets of Dhaka and nearby Tongi Sunday as a strike to protest the killing of an opposition lawmaker brought Bangladesh to a standstill.
Ahsanullah Master, a member of the main opposition Awami League, was gunned down at a party rally Friday in Tongi. There have been no arrests and his killing has set off widespread unrest in the two cities.
Authorities said they suspect his killing may be connected to a feud within his party. But Awami League blamed government supporters and called a one-day strike.
In Dkaha, a city of 10 million, shops and schools were closed and streets were mostly empty Sunday, a work day in mostly Muslim Bangladesh.
Riot police manned barbed-wire barricades erected around the Awami League headquarters in central Dhaka , preventing its members from taking to the streets.
Security was similarly tight in Tongi and more than 60 other cities and towns where the strike took hold, the opposition said.
Authorities deployed several thousand police and paramilitary soldiers on the streets of Dhaka and Tongi to prevent violence, Dhaka police chief Ashraful Huda said.
On Friday and Saturday, riot police clashed with thousands of opposition supporters who rampaged through Dhaka and Tongi to protest Master's shooting.
Angry mobs attacked government buildings, shops, trains, cars and buses. One person was killed when police fired shots to disperse a mob in Tongi on Friday.
Police have arrested nearly 150 opposition protesters for rioting, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

Sun May 9, 5:43 AM ET

Riot policemen stand guard as a passenger train leaves after restoration of law and order at Tongi railway station, on the outskirts of Dhaka , Bangladesh , Sunday, May 9, 2004, during an opposition sponsored general strike. Opposition activists burnt a train and went on a rampage at Tongi railway station on Friday after opposition Member of Parliament Ahsanullah Master was killed by a gunman. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)