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Bangladesh minister rules out army deployment to contain violence

Xinhua, January 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Bangladeshi State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Sunday ruled out deployment of the army in capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country to tackle spiralling violence of opposition alliance-enforced countrywide nonstop blockade. "There is no such situation in the country for which we need to go for deployment of the army-led joint forces," he said while talking to reporters at his office in capital Dhaka.

He said members of the anti-crime buster elite force Rapid Action Battalion, paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh and police are capable to deal with the criminal elements.

The fresh wave of violence has so far left 24 people dead and several hundred injured as anti-government protesters battled with law enforcers, attacked rivals, torched vehicles and targeted railway since Jan. 6 morning when ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's opposition alliance enforced nationwide non-stop rail-road- waterway blockade.

Khaleda Zia, who alleges that she has been kept confined to her office in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan since Jan. 4 night, announced indefinite blockade across the country after her alliance was barred to hold rally on Jan. 5 in capital Dhaka demanding fresh parliament polls under a non-party caretaker government system.

Incidents of clash, arson, vandalism, chase and counter-chase, bomb explosions and detention have been reported across the country every day since the night of Jan. 5.

Hundreds of vehicles were smashed or set on fire during the ongoing blockade.

Khaleda Zia, also Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson, has urged her party men to continue blockade until the government is forced to sit in a dialogue on holding a fresh free, fair and inclusive election.

Violence has remained unabated around Bangladesh as rift between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party and Khaleda Zia's BNP-led 20-party alliance widens with their rigid stances. Endi