Dhaka, Jan 6 (EFE).- Traffic was thin on the streets as Bangladesh’s main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and its allies began enforcing a 48-hour strike urging people to refrain from voting in Sunday’s general election.
Local television channels showed most of the buses on long-distance routes staying off the roads, while the number of private vehicles plying in the capital Dhaka was also limited during the strike duration.
Bangladesh Railways ordered the cancellation of around 20 services for two days across the country on safety concerns.
“We expect that public movement will be less these two days. So, we have asked local authorities to keep unimportant trains off. This is mostly to ensure the safety of the services,” Kamrul Ahsan, director general of Bangladesh Railway, told EFE.
At least four people were killed as a train caught fire near the main station of the capital, Dhaka, on Friday night, hours before the opposition enforced the strike.
Police suspected the fire was an incident of arson and launched an investigation.
BNP denied responsibilities and condemned what it called an “anti-human” activity, accusing the government of perpetrating it to divert public attention.
“This inhuman incident is pre-planned and ill-motivated… We demand an international investigation of the incident through the United Nations,” BNP spokesperson Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said in a statement.
Unidentified miscreants set fire to two schools in separate places in Gazipur city, near Dhaka, early Saturday, local fire station chief Abdullah Al Arefin told EFE.
Two schools were supposed to serve as polling stations for Sunday’s election.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ruling Bangladesh Awami League are poised to win their fourth consecutive term, as most opposition parties, including Islamists and leftists, have boycotted the election.
The decision to boycott stems from Hasina’s refusal to dissolve her government and establish an interim istration to oversee the elections, a crucial demand from the opposition following allegations of poll fraud in 2018.
The opposition has also cited security force repression that forced them to take the decision.
The BNP has decried the arrest of over 24,000 of its leaders and activists by the police since Oct. 28, when a major anti-government demonstration was quashed by security forces.
In response, the BNP has labeled the elections as a “sham,” initiated general strikes and blockades, and urged the public to abstain from paying taxes and participating in the electoral process. EFE
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