Bangladesh Opposition Attempts to Break Zia Siege

Bangladesh riot police besieging the office of opposition leader Khaleda Zia lobbed pepper spray inside the compound Monday after dozens of her supporters attempted to break open the gate, a senior aide said.

The leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has been confined to her office since Saturday night after calling for mass protests as part of a campaign to force Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to hold new polls, a year on from her rival's controversial re-election.

"Police lobbed pepper spray at us as we tried to break open a padlocked gate. Khaleda Zia has got in her car and is trying to come out of her office building to join a mass rally," her spokesman Shimul Biswas told Agence France Presse.

"Several people, including journalists, were injured," Biswas added after television footage showed BNP members trying to prise open the compound gates in the capital Dhaka.

Zia spent half an hour in the car before emerging to talk to reporters who managed to jump over the walls surrounding her compound.

"Why are these sand trucks for?" she said, referring to a convoy of trucks laden with sand and bricks that were parked outside her office.  

"They sprayed pepper at us. It is not a normal situation. Is the country facing a war?" she said, calling the government "illegal" and asking people to join protests.

"The protests will continue," she said, announcing a fresh nationwide blockade in an effort to topple her bitter rival Hasina.