Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed sacked or transferred 27 senior bureaucrats on his first day as head of an interim government after opposition parties set him a deadline to prove his neutrality. The director-general of the elite Rapid Action Battalion force and a police intelligence chief were also sacked.
"The president has begun to act towards fulfilling the demands," a senior government official said on Tuesday. Iajuddin was sworn in on Sunday as chief adviser of the caretaker authority to supervise January elections in the impoverished South Asian country of 140 million.
But the main opposition party, the Awami League, and its allies have asked him to demonstrate by November 3 that he is neutral and can be trusted for the job.
Iajuddin will be assisted in his new role by a panel of 10 advisers, chosen from nominees given by major political parties. A spokesman of the presidential palace said the parties had already handed their lists to the president. "The names of the advisers are being finalised and they may be called up anytime to take oath of office," the spokesman said.
The caretaker authority replaced Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), whose five-year mandate ended last Friday. Violent protests over who should lead the three-month administration killed at least 25 people and injured hundreds over the weekend. Clashes between rival parties continued on Tuesday and the death toll rose to 29, police said.
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