BANGLADESH

The BNP will enforce for a second straight day a daylong countrywide shutdown on Monday to protest the disappearance of the party's organising secretary M Ilias Ali.

The main opposition party's acting secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the announcement at a media call at the Naya Paltan headquarters minutes before Sunday's lockdown was to end.

Fakhrul, who has been threatening the government with a non-stop general strike, said, "I'm telling the government again, return Ilias Ali and his car driver. Otherwise, the protest will be tougher."

"Monday's hartal will also be a 6am-to-6pm one like Sunday," he added.

Ilias Ali, also the chief of Sylhet district chapter, went missing since in the early hours on Wednesday. Police recovered his car, abandoned with doors open, from a street in Mohakhali.

Sunday's shutdown saw law-enforcers clamping down on pickets as sporadic clashes took place around the country. BNP leaders were cordoned off at the Naya Paltan headquarters all day long.

Sylhet, the home of Ilias Ali, had the biggest share of violence between police and opposition pickets leading to 20 people being injured and more than 50 detained.

The main opposition has been alleging the government has 'abducted' Ilias while the government refuted the allegation claiming it is trying it's best to find Ilias, a former MP.

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia alleged that Rapid Action Battalion 'abducted' Ilias. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, however, said that Ilias has gone into 'hiding' and BNP is staging a 'drama' over it.

Fakhrul at the press briefing on Sunday said, "Remarks of the prime minister and the government officials have led us to believe that a government agency has abducted Ilias and now they are staging dramas over the issue of returning him."

Meanwhile, RAB on Saturday night raided several suspected houses at Gazipur's Pubail to find Ilias but had nothing to show for.

Apart from Sylhet, situation was normal elsewhere during Sunday's shutdown. Train, launch and plane operations were normal. Long-route buses were at a halt while rickshaws dominated the streets as usual.

Several local-made hand bombs exploded in the capital since the morning, most of them in front of the BNP headquarters.