Bangladesh’s Ershad Ends Four Years of Martial Law

The government today ended four years of martial law, while thousands of demonstrators battled police in a protest against President Hussain Mohammed Ershad’s rule.

One youth was killed and more than 100 people were injured, witnesses and hospital sources said, in the protest against a law passed by Parliament preventing any legal challenge to Ershad’s rule, which began with a bloodless coup March 24, 1982.

Five buses were set ablaze and police said more than 50 firebombs were tossed outside Dhaka University. Police said 34 officers were injured.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital said a 14-year-old died of bullet wounds and the independent Eastern News Agency said he was hit when police opened fire to disperse bomb-throwing students.

Ershad, who has ruled the country as chief martial law administrator, had promised a formal return to democracy as soon as the indemnity law protecting his regime was adopted.

Tajul Islam, an adviser to Ershad, said that martial law ended this afternoon and that the constitution suspended in 1982 was revived.

Opposition parties have denounced as a fraud Ershad’s election as president last month, and Sheik Hasina Wajed of the opposition Awami League said today that the opposition would not recognize the new legislation, which Parliament passed 223 to 0 today.

Sheik Hasina’s coalition, which has 96 members, and the fundamentalist Muslim party Jaamat-i-Islami boycotted the session.

“We will not accept the legalization of Ershad’s rule,” Sheik Hasina said. “This is anti-people legislation, and the masses will not accept it.”