DHAKA Businesses were closed and vehicles stayed off roads across Bangladesh on Tuesday during an opposition-sponsored half-day general strike in which two people died in the capital Dhaka.
Police said two women garment workers were crushed under the wheels of a speeding minivan that was carrying opposition pickets in Dhaka's Motijheel business district.
Witnesses said the van was being chased by police jeeps when it ran over the two workers as the strike got underway.
Thousands of commuters remained stranded in Dhaka as public transportation was halted beginning at 6 a.m. local time.
The right-wing alliance waging a campaign to overthrow the four-year old center-left government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called for the seven-hour general strike to protest police action on Sunday against opposition activists in central Dhaka.
Clashes with police during the weekend rally left at least 50 people injured.
The opposition claimed more than 100 activists were detained after the anti-government demonstration was broken up.
Begum Khaleda Zia, chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which spearheads the four-party alliance, alleged the police had committed excesses on a peaceful rally, a charge that was denied by authorities.
Supporters of both the ruling Awami League and the opposition alliance brought out street processions during the strike, which was watched by thousands of riot police and paramilitary troops deployed in Dhaka.
(DPA)