Bangladeshi authorities warned they would use troops to help keep order after protesters demanding electoral reform paralyzed much of the country on Sunday with a violent transport blockade.
A man was killed and 50 others were injured during the first day of the blockade, which has shut ports, paralyzed major cities and cut off the capital, Dhaka, from the rest of the country.
A man jumps off a train after a group of protesters attack and set fire to a passenger train near Tongi station on the outskirts of Dhaka.
(Pavel Rahman/Associated Press)
Protesters set fire to a passenger train and blocked tracks at Tongi station near Dhaka. An Associated Press photographer said they started fires in at least five carriages.
The blockade, which has seen activists blockading all the entry points into the city by road, rail and waterway, is being spearheaded by a 14-party alliance, which is calling for the removal of the chief election commissioner and his deputies.
The main opposition party, Awami League, says the commission officials are biased toward the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party or BNP.
The BNP denies the officials are biased. It has accused the alliance of trying to push the country into anarchy in a bid to sabotage an election due in January 2007.
On Saturday, the caretaker government of President Iajuddin Ahmad announced that rallies and protests were banned and beefed up the presence of security forces.
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