Police official suggests fire aimed at scaring people before Sunday\u2019s vote, which faces opposition boycott
\nDhaka
\nFour people have died in an apparent arson attack on a train in Bangladesh, adding to tension before parliamentary elections on Sunday.
\nBangladeshi police on Saturday said they had arrested seven people.
\nThe fire on Friday raced through four coaches in the passenger train in what one police official called an attack aimed at scaring people before the vote, though authorities did not immediately name any individuals or groups as suspects.
\nViolence is common during Bangladesh elections and Sunday\u2019s voting comes amid an increasingly polarised political culture led by two powerful women: the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and the former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, an opposition leader who is under house arrest.
\nZia\u2019s Bangladesh Nationalist party and other opposition groups are boycotting the vote, saying it would not be free or fair under Hasina. They had demanded she step aside and let a neutral caretaker government administer the polling, but her government insisted there was no provision in the constitution for such a move.
\nThe fire on the train broke out as it was travelling towards Dhaka\u2019s main railway station at about 9pm, Rakibul Hasan, a duty officer of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, said. At least four bodies were recovered from inside the train, police told reporters at the scene.
\nMahid Uddin, an additional police commissioner with the Dhaka Metropolitan police, said the fire was \u201cclearly an act of sabotage\u201d aimed at scaring people before the election. He did not name any political party or groups as suspects, but said police would seek those responsible.
\nSeven firefighting units were sent to the scene to douse the blaze, Hasan said.
\nCampaigning for the elections officially ended on Friday morning. The Election Commission announced polling would be held in 299 of the 300 constituencies on Sunday. The election in one constituency was postponed after an independent candidate died of natural causes.
\nRuhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior joint secretary general in Zia\u2019s party, has urged people not to vote on Sunday and called for a 48-hour general strike from 6am on Saturday to 6am on Monday.
\nOn Friday morning, Rizvi led more than 100 opposition leaders and activists holding sticks and chanting anti-government slogans as they marched in the capital\u2019s Karwan Bazar area.
\n\u201cPeople will not accept this illegal election. People will not accept this election of looters,\u201d Rizvi said during the march.
\nHasina addressed the nation in a last televised campaign speech on Thursday night, urging people to head to ballot stations.
\n\u201cIf I have made any mistakes along the way, I ask your forgiveness. If I can form the government again, I will get a chance to correct the mistakes. Give me an opportunity to serve you,\u201d she said.
\nAt least three people have been killed in violence attributed to political clashes since the campaign officially began on 18 December.
\nThe UN secretary general\u2019s associate spokeswoman Florencia Soto Nino said in New York on Wednesday: \u201cWe\u2019re watching the process closely, and we hope that all elections happen in a transparent and organised manner.\u201d
\nNearly 1.6 million people \u2013 half of them security personnel \u2013 will oversee the election, with 119.1 million registered voters eligible to cast their ballot in more than 42,000 polling stations, the commission said. Troops have been deployed across the country to assist when needed under the supervision of magistrates, a common practice in Bangladesh during general elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police official suggests fire aimed at scaring people before Sunday\u2019s vote, which faces opposition boycott Dhaka Four people have died in an apparent arson attack on a train in Bangladesh, adding to tension before parliamentary elections on Sunday. Bangladeshi police on Saturday said they had arrested seven people. The fire on Friday raced through four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-379203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n