Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed summoned senior leaders of the country's main political parties on Saturday after countrywide violence over handing over charge to a caretaker prime minister, a presidential official said. "Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the main opposition Awami League, has already reached the palace while Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, secretary-general of Bangladesh Nationalist Party of (Prime Minister) Begum Khaleda Zia, is expected there soon," said the official. The summons came amid reports that former chief justice K.M. Hasan, the man supposed to take over from Khaleda as head of a caretaker administration, had expressed unwillingness to take up the job. The opposition has said it will not accept him in the post because of his links to the ruling party, Reuters reported. Fierce clashes between political groups in Bangladesh has killed at least nine people, wounded over 700 in two days, police said. A 14-party opposition alliance led by Awami chief Sheikh Hasina has threatened to paralyze the country by blocking highways and calling indefinite strikes if Hasan takes over from Khaleda.
