There are a number of countries I have no desire or inclination to visit, Bangladesh is one of them.
Dozens dead, 7,000 arrested as political violence rocks Bangladesh
Dhaka (CNN)Thirty-one people have been killed and more than 7,000 arrested in weeks of political unrest in Bangladesh, as the country’s opposition mounts mass protests demanding fresh parliamentary elections.
The dead were mainly killed by arson attacks on buses and cars, police said. The two most recent victims, who died of their injuries in hospital Thursday, were victims of bomb blasts.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), along with 19 allied parties, called for general strikes and a nationwide blockade on road, rail and river transport on January 5, the first anniversary of disputed elections.
The BNP and its allies boycotted those elections, with BNP leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia arguing they would have been rigged by the government, and refusing to participate unless they were conducted under a neutral caretaker administration.
Her arch rival, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League, refused to concede to the demands and coasted to victory. More than half of the parliament’s 300 seats went uncontested.
Voting was conducted under neutral caretaker governments in Bangladesh from 1991 until 2010, when the system was scrapped by the governing Awami League.
