Normal life has\u00a0ground to a halt in Dhaka following a general strike called by Bangladesh’s main opposition party against the government’s alleged failure to run the country effectively, Al Jazeera English reports.<\/p>\n
Thousands of riot police were patrolling the streets of the capital and schools and businesses were shut on Monday.<\/p>\n
The strike called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has also disrupted transport services.<\/p>\n
The BNP, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, accuses the government of failing to regulate the country’s capital market, which recently suffered a sharp fall, fuelling violence.<\/p>\n
But the government of Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, denies the allegations, saying the BNP is trying to destabilise the country.<\/p>\n
Monday’s strike was the third that the BNP has called since it suffered defeat in the December 2008 elections.<\/p>\n
BNP officials and supporters held small protest marches across Dhaka, chanting slogans against the government.<\/p>\n
The party’s head office was cordoned off by scores of riot police, who had a water cannon ready to break up protests.<\/p>\n
Bangladesh police said that at least eight buses were set on fire on Sunday night, just hours before the strike was enforced.<\/p>\n
A homemade bomb reportedly exploded on the campus of a Dhaka university, injuring two people.<\/p>\n
Five people, including a low-ranking BNP official, were arrested in Dhaka\u00a0over Sunday night’s\u00a0violence, Masud Ahmed, a Dhaka police spokesman, told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n
Dhaka police blamed the opposition for Sunday’s violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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