Assailants wielding iron rods attacked the car of Bangladesh's former prime minister and main opposition leader Khaleda Zia on Monday during an election rally and then shot at it as the vehicle sped away but she was unhurt, officials said.
The attack highlighted tensions in the politically unstable South Asian country, where Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has stepped up protests aimed at forcing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to quit and hold a new national election following a disputed 2014 poll.
BNP spokesman Mohammad Shamsuddin told Reuters Khaleda had been addressing a rally for a mayoral election in the capital Dhaka from her car when the men tried to attack it with iron rods and sticks.
Shots were fired at the bullet-proof vehicle as it drove off, Shamsuddin said. Khaleda's bodyguard and five other people were injured in the attack and had to receive hospital treatment, he added. The BNP called for a nation-wide general strike outside Dhaka and the city of Chittagong - which both hold mayoral elections on April 28 - to protest against the attack on its leader.
The prime minister's political adviser, H.T. Imam, said Khaleda's party should take better security precautions in crowded urban areas because many Bangladeshis were angry with her over the protests organised by her party. More than 120 people have been killed and hundreds injured in months of political violence, most of them in petrol bomb attacks on vehicles, amid transport blockades and strikes by the opposition aimed at toppling the government.
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