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- WORLD, Page 67World NotesBANGLADESHForecast: More Turbulence
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- First the opposition began another round of violent protest.
- Then, inevitably, President Hussain Mohammad Ershad declared
- a state of emergency, banned political activity and suspended
- civil rights. Just as predictably, the protesters paid no
- attention to the presidential order as they pursued their
- campaign to bring down Ershad, who had come to power in a 1982
- coup.
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- As usual in the turbulent politics of Bangladesh,
- demonstrators thronged the streets of Dhaka, the capital, and
- were sporadically dispersed by soldiers wielding batons and
- tear-gas canisters even as they fortified themselves with
- makeshift barricades. The government ordered the arrest of the
- two women who head the main opposition groups -- Sheik Hasina
- Wazed of the Awami League and Begum Khaleda Zia of the
- Bangladesh Nationalist Party -- but the two remained undaunted.
- As it happens, Hasina is the daughter of a slain former
- President, and Zia is the widow of another. Vowed Hasina:
- "Ershad's last days have arrived. We shall not leave the
- streets until the dictator is removed."
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