Political activism halted in Bangladesh

The security forces in Bangladesh have started enforcement of the ban on political activities, slapped by the army-backed interim government, halting visibly all forms of political actions across the country.

Leaders in the major political parties and district level administrators said the lawmen started shutting political party offices down in the countryside from Saturday, a day after the government imposed the ban on indoor politics in line with the promulgation of the Emergency Powers Rules that curtailed civil and political rights in the impoverished country.

After a serious political turmoil for months since the October 2006 handover of power to a caretaker administration and subsequent failure of President Iajuddin Ahmed headed administration to create an atmosphere for general elections, the backstage military intervention forces reconstitution of the interim administration after promulgation of the state of emergency on January 11.

The reconstituted interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed, a former World Bank official, started political reforms and launched massive hunts to free the society from the influence of corrupt persons.

The political activities were completely banned on Friday amidst the crackdown against the corrupt persons, including the former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman who is now remanded under custody in an extortion case.

With the latest government order not to carry on activities, major political parties have kept their central offices under lock and key with limited access of leaders and activists in the capital. Police shut down some district-level offices, the party insiders said.

Turn-out of activists at the offices of two major parties, Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Awami League was almost nil on Saturday fearing the law enforcers' raid.

The Naya Paltan central office the Bangladesh Nationalist Party remained shut for most of the time. The BNP leadership has ordered restrictions on visit to the party office by the activists.

"The leaders and activists need permission from high-ups for entry," said a staff at the party's central office. The BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia's office at Banani remained open, with only a few staff members attending. Her movements, according to media reports, are restricted by now.

The Bangabandhu Avenue's headquarters of the Awami League also remained open for a few hours on the day, but there was no activity.

In the district towns, police asked the leaders of almost all political parties to abide by the Emergency Power Rules that curtailed civil and political rights.

Report reaching from some districts said that the police locked a number of offices of different political parties and took away keys. In southern Patuakhali, however, they returned the keys of the office of the Communist Party of Bangladesh within 24 hours after they took them away, said a party source. n northern Rajshahi, the police issued verbal orders to different parties to keep their offices closed.

"We received a verbal order from the police administration in this regard on Friday," a leader of a leftwing party told Asian News International (ANI).

Leaders of some political parties in south-western Jessore District said they had received instructions from the police administration asking for 'assistance' in imposing the ban. The police said party offices should remain shut. The leaders from both sides of the political divide said, the police stopped activists from opening party offices in Khulna city.

Local leaders of the parties in the north-eastern Sylhet district, however, received no such instruction. The district administration was also ignorant about such order. Police in southern Pirojpur district locked the offices of the parties.

"Police locked and sealed off the offices of BNP, Awami League, Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami in Nazirpur upazila town," admitted a sub-inspector of Nazirpur Police Station said.

In the south-eastern port city of Chittagong, the offices of all political parties were shut after the imposition of ban on indoor political activities. A BNP leader said that they had closed their offices themselves following the official ban. eanwhile, the Bangladesh Workers Party announced that it had postponed all its programmes announced to mark the country's Independence Day on March 26.

In the face of police interference, the citizens' rights movement, a non-governmental organisation, was forced to suspend an ongoing discussion meeting at the National Press Club on Saturday.

Politicians were scheduled to speak at the discussion on 'the prospects of Bangladesh's business in South Asia'. The programme was suspended half- way through. (ANI)

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