51.   Bangladeshi officials Thursday defied a police ban on demonstrations inside the government secretariat complex and were staging a sit-in to force Prime Minister Khaleda Zia resign.

52.   There was a thin attendence at the government secretariat complex, which houses most ministries, while banking sources said skeleton staff would only handle urgent international correspondence.

53.   There were fewer passengers than normal at the usually crowded station in the centre of a government administrative complex, as the anniversary fell on a national holiday.

54.   They said police stopped the militants belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami party from marching to the downtown high-security government secretariat complex.

55.   They were to hold a meeting at the Istana government complex later in the day.

56.   Thousands of supporters of the main opposition party, the Awami League, meanwhile started a three-day sit-in downtown near the high-security government secretariat complex.

57.   Two others were injured from bombs lobbed inside the high-security government secretariat complex and in central Kawran Bazar area, witnesses said.

58.   Witnesses said bombs were set off near the offices of a mass circulation daily, the Bangabhaban presidential palace and the high-security government secretariat complex.

59.   Witnesses said one man was seriously injured in a bomb blast near the high-security government secretariat complex.

60.   Police and troops were concentrated around the government secretariat complex and roads leading to the city centre area were partially barricaded with barbed wire.