Thousands of Bangladesh opposition activists had gathered on Saturday in cities and urban centres to form an unprecedented 900-km (560-mile) ?human chain? to demonstrate no-confidence in the government. Opposition leaders expect about five million activists and supporters of the Awami League and 13 other left leaning parties to complete the chain by late afternoon.

?We will stand hand in hand on the roadsides linking Teknaf in the southeast with Tentulia in the northwest for an hour to show a total no-confidence in the government of Begum Khaleda Zia,? said Mohammad Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the Awami League party. The government has deployed thousands of police and paramilitary troops to tackle any possible violence during the formation of the cross-country human chain.

Police, witnesses and opposition leaders in most of the places where the human chain has been planned said thousands had already converged at the sites carrying loudspeakers, banners and placards with anti-government slogans. Helicopters carrying troops from the elite Rapid Action Battalion have fanned out to major urban centres in the densely popyulated country of 132 million to monitor the protest.

For security reasons, authorities have banned movement of motorbikes at protest sites throughout the country for the day. ?We want resignation of the government as it failed to give security to the public life, curb corruption, arrest commodity price hikes and gagged the opposition,? said Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Bangladesh Workers Party.

Opposition parties said police had arrested more than 1,000 of their leaders and activists over the past two days in a bid to frustrate the campaign. ?The security has been tightened to stop any sort of mayhem, because vested groups might instigate bloody incidents to shift the blame on the government,? State Minister for Home Affairs M. Lutfuzzaman Babar told reporters. Of the 14 opposition parties, only the Awami League has representation in the 300-member parliament, holding 58 seats.

The business community has praised the opposition for adopting a different style of protest instead of the crippling strikes that have cost the country millions of dollars in lost productivity this year. But opposition leaders said they would go back to strikes if the government disrupts their peaceful programme. The Awami League is demanding the resignation of the government to pave the way for an election that is not due until 2006.