DHAKA, Bangladesh — Violent clashes in Bangladesh have killed four people and injured 300 as a general strike intended to force Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation shut down cities throughout Bangladesh for a third day Tuesday.
Opposition activists and government supporters have used guns and homemade bombs since the strike began Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh, closing businesses and schools and halting most traffic in the capital, Dhaka, and 60 other cities and towns. Police have detained close to 300 protesters.
Strikers on Tuesday smashed scores of tricycle rickshaws for defying the protest by seeking customers. Commuters, mostly government employees, used the rickshaws to travel to work as buses and private cars stayed off the streets.
Three strike-related deaths were reported Monday in the southern districts of Chittagong, Brahmmanbaria and Choumohoni. A trucker was killed in a bomb attack on Sunday.
Homemade bombs — explosives in small cans — went off sporadically in parts of Dhaka on Tuesday, but no injuries were reported from those blasts.
Nearly 6,000 security forces were on duty in the city of 9 million people.
Opposition members boycotted the Jatiya Sangsad, or parliament, but legislators from the ruling Awami League party attended under tight security.
Government offices were open, but employee turnout was poor, United News of Bangladesh said. Flights, trains and river ferries operated despite the strike, which was scheduled to end Tuesday night.
The 60-hour shutdown was called after Hasina ignored an opposition ultimatum to step down by March 30. She vowed to stay in power until her government's term expires on July 13.
Under the constitution, an incumbent must transfer power to a nonpartisan caretaker administration to supervise voting.
An alliance of four opposition parties — the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jatiya Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote — called the strike to intensify its anti-government campaign.
Bangladesh has seen two presidents slain, three military coups and 19 failed coup attempts in 30 years of independence.
Its last military ruler, Gen. Hossain Mohammad Ershad, was overthrown by a pro-democracy movement in 1990.