Dhaka, Oct 29: Three people were killed on Sunday in clashes between supporters of the main opposition BNP and the ruling Awami League during a nationwide general strike, heightening tensions in Bangladesh ahead of the general elections expected in January.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former premier Khaleda Zia, called a countrywide strike on Sunday to protest the police action that forced the party to abruptly end its grand rally a day earlier.
According to police, one activist of the BNP was killed after falling from an under-construction building in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur area when he tried to escape after setting a bus on fire.
BNP leaders, however, claimed that the deceased was returning home after the rally when rival Awami League activists whisked him to the building from where he was thrown on the ground while police stood as onlookers.
Police said one Awami League activist was killed in clashes during demonstrations by rival parties in the northwestern Lalmonirhat district.
Fire service and police said a bus driver’s assistant was killed and another injured when unidentified miscreants set on fire a bus in a predawn attack at the Demra area on the outskirts of the city.
A senior journalist, Rafiq Bhuiyan, who suffered injuries during clashes between police and opposition activists in Dhaka’s Kakrail area on Saturday, succumbed to his injuries on Sunday.
According to media reports, several passenger buses were damaged or set on fire in the capital and elsewhere in the country throughout the day.
The development came a day after deadly clashes left two people, including a policeman, dead and over 200 wounded. Several ambulances, other vehicles, including motorbikes, entering the frontal part of Rajarbagh Central Police Hospital and a police booth were burnt.
Earlier in the day, police arrested BNP secretary general or de facto party chief Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir from his home in the Gulshan neighbourhood, heightening tensions.
The BNP organised a grand rally here on Saturday demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to allow free and fair elections under a non-party interim government. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s party also held a peace rally in response to the Opposition rally.
A BNP spokesperson said police also made a series of raids on the homes of senior party leaders and claimed nearly 3,000 party activists and supporters have been detained. (PTI)
