Bangladesh PM asks police to tackle campus violence
By Anis Ahmed
DHAKA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered police and other authorities to crack down on student violence, some of it involving her own supportes, which has resulted in scores of injuries and disrupted classes.
Hasina, who took office less than two weeks ago after a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, said law enforcement agencies should "deal sternly with trouble-seeking students without caring for their political identities", a senior home ministry official said on Monday.
Investors and aid donors hope Hasina brings a measure of political stability to Bangladesh, which has a history of party supporters clashing in the streets and engaging in other tactics that sometimes turn violent.
Hasina gave the order tor action on the campuses after police said students backing her Awami League had fought battles among themselves and with rivals at Dhaka University and several others across the country of more than 140 million, forcing classes and examinations to halt.
Around 35 students were injured in clashes at Jahangirnagar University near the capital, while rebellious students locked off the whole campus at the Chittagong University for several days.
Awami League student wing members in some cases battled rivals within their own group as well as those from other parties with sticks and iron rods, police and university officials said.
They added that the factions also used crude bombs in efforts to occupy dormitories and assert control over the campuses.
Police reopened the Chittagong campus on Monday and tightened security at others, including Dhaka University.
The army-backed interim government which held the Dec. 29 election that returned Hasina, prime minister from 1996 to 2001, to power for a second five-year term, had proposed to ban student politics on campuses.
But both Hasina's Awami League and its main rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), opposed the move. The BNP is led by another former prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia.
Khaleda alleged the election was widely rigged but has said her party would take the opposition bench in parliament, which opens for business on Jan. 25, rather than resort to a long-term boycott, a practice both leading parties have used in the past.
Immediately after the election Hasina said she might offer Khaleda and her party -- which won just 31 of parliament's 300 seats -- a few parliamentary positions and even ministries if they cooperated with the government.
Khaleda, who served two five-year terms as premier of the impoverished and disaster-prone south Asian country, has said she is willing to cooperate depending "on how the ruling party treats the opposition".
Hasina took charge on Jan. 6 and named a 31-member cabinet with mostly first-time Awami legislators, but made no immediate offer to the BNP.
Around 40 percent of Bangladesh's people live on less than $1 a day, and the low-lying country on the Indian Ocean coast is frequently hit by flooding and cyclones.
However, it is an important textile producer and has untapped energy resources. (Editing by Jerry Norton)
DHAKA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered police and other authorities to crack down on student violence, some of it involving her own supportes, which has resulted in scores of injuries and disrupted classes.
Hasina, who took office less than two weeks ago after a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, said law enforcement agencies should "deal sternly with trouble-seeking students without caring for their political identities", a senior home ministry official said on Monday.
Investors and aid donors hope Hasina brings a measure of political stability to Bangladesh, which has a history of party supporters clashing in the streets and engaging in other tactics that sometimes turn violent.
Hasina gave the order tor action on the campuses after police said students backing her Awami League had fought battles among themselves and with rivals at Dhaka University and several others across the country of more than 140 million, forcing classes and examinations to halt.
Around 35 students were injured in clashes at Jahangirnagar University near the capital, while rebellious students locked off the whole campus at the Chittagong University for several days.
Awami League student wing members in some cases battled rivals within their own group as well as those from other parties with sticks and iron rods, police and university officials said.
They added that the factions also used crude bombs in efforts to occupy dormitories and assert control over the campuses.
Police reopened the Chittagong campus on Monday and tightened security at others, including Dhaka University.
The army-backed interim government which held the Dec. 29 election that returned Hasina, prime minister from 1996 to 2001, to power for a second five-year term, had proposed to ban student politics on campuses.
But both Hasina's Awami League and its main rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), opposed the move. The BNP is led by another former prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia.
Khaleda alleged the election was widely rigged but has said her party would take the opposition bench in parliament, which opens for business on Jan. 25, rather than resort to a long-term boycott, a practice both leading parties have used in the past.
Immediately after the election Hasina said she might offer Khaleda and her party -- which won just 31 of parliament's 300 seats -- a few parliamentary positions and even ministries if they cooperated with the government.
Khaleda, who served two five-year terms as premier of the impoverished and disaster-prone south Asian country, has said she is willing to cooperate depending "on how the ruling party treats the opposition".
Hasina took charge on Jan. 6 and named a 31-member cabinet with mostly first-time Awami legislators, but made no immediate offer to the BNP.
Around 40 percent of Bangladesh's people live on less than $1 a day, and the low-lying country on the Indian Ocean coast is frequently hit by flooding and cyclones.
However, it is an important textile producer and has untapped energy resources. (Editing by Jerry Norton)
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