by Salim Mia
DHAKA, Aug 24 (AFP) - More than 220 demonstrators were arrested in Bangladesh Tuesday as a nationwide strike to protest a deadly attack on an opposition rally brought main centres to a halt, police and witnesses said.
More than 7,000 police and paramilitary forces patrolled the tense capital Dhaka on the first day of a two-day general strike called by the opposition Awami League to protest Saturday's attack, which killed 20 people.
Traffic was off the roads in most towns and cities while shops, schools and colleges were closed and some railway services suspended, although there was no major violence, officials told AFP.
Opposition officials said Saturday's grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka, which also left hundreds of wounded, was an attempt to assassinate party leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed, a former prime minister.
Her car was fired on as she was rushed away from the scene by aides and bodyguards, one of whom was killed.
Some 96 people protesting the attack in Dhaka were arrested Tuesday when they resisted police trying to disperse them, Dhaka Additional Police Commissioner Mizanur Rahman said.
"Extra police were drafted in to bring the police presence to 7,000 to prevent violence so we are happy that the strike ended peacefully and there were no major incidents," he said.
Railway services across the country were suspended after activists dragged signal controllers from their posts and formed barricades on main inter-city train lines.
"We have had to suspend most services," said Mostafa-e-Zamil, an official of Bangladesh Railways.
The southeastern port city of Chittagong was completely shut down and protestors blockaded the main Dhaka-Chittagong highway, police and witnesses said, adding protestors had smashed a number of vehicles and rickshaws.
Police said 129 people were arrested during demonstrations in the city, the official news agency BSS said.
There were no deliveries to the port, said Kamrul Hossain, second in command of operations, although work inside was going on as usual.
Police and paramilitary units guarded key installations such as oil refineries, police said.
In northwestern Rajshahi, thousands marched in protest and most rickshaws, normally exempt from strikes, were off the roads, police said. "There are many demonstrations going on in the city but there has not been any violence," said Divisional Inspector General of Police Matiur Rahman.
Police in northeastern Sylhet said the city had closed down but there were no reports of any incidents.
The city has been the scene of a number of unexplained blasts this year. This month two explosions within a week claimed one life each and in June another killed one person and injured about 50 others.
In May the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Anwar Choudhury, was wounded when a bomb exploded outside a mosque, killing three people. In January, four people died in a blast at a 700-year-old shrine.
Southwestern Khulna was also brought to a standstill by Tuesday's strike. "Shops are closed, buses and trucks are not moving and there are many sporadic processions but no violence yet," said Akbar Ali, Khulna deputy police commissioner.
The death toll from Saturday's blasts rose to 20 meanwhile when a senior member of the Awami League, Ivy Rahman, died in hospital, an armed forces spokesman said.
The party announced it would end the second day of the general strike at 1:00 pm instead of dusk as planned to allow Awami League members to attend her funeral.
A body was also recovered from a burnt-out train torched by a mob that rampaged Sunday in protest over the attack, BSS said.
Tuesday's strike, a common form of protest in Bangladesh, is the 15th called by the Awami League since February as part of its intensified campaign to oust the government, a four-party Islamist-allied coalition led by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The opposition accuses the government of failing to tackle crime and corruption. The government says it is working hard to tackle a grim situation inherited from the Awami League.