36 dead as Bangladesh cracks down on Islamists
Source: AFP |
May 7, 2013, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BANGLADESHI police broke up a protest by tens of thousands of religious hardliners and shut down Islamist television stations yesterday as 36 people died in some of the fiercest street violence for decades.
Hundreds more were injured in running battles as riot police broke up the rally near a commercial district in a pre-dawn raid in the capital Dhaka.
Dozens of demonstrators were also arrested, while the leader of the protests was put on a plane to the country's second city Chittagong.
Hundreds of bankers and stock market traders had to sleep in their offices as the sound of gunfire echoed around Dhaka's Motijheel Commercial Area through the night. Shops and vehicles were set alight while the roads were littered with rocks that protesters had thrown at police.
Police said they used sound grenades, water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse at least 70,000 Islamists who were camped at Motijheel as part of a push for a blasphemy law.
"We were forced to act after they unlawfully continued their gathering at Motijheel. They attacked us with bricks, stones, rods and bamboo sticks," Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman said, adding the protesters dispersed early yesterday.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital said that 11 bodies were brought to the clinic, including a policeman who had been hacked in the head with machetes. A total of 25 other people were killed in the protests, according to police and medical officials.
Violence also flared up at Hathazari, a town just outside Chittagong, where at least four people were killed after several thousand Islamists clashed with police and border guards.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled out a blasphemy law, saying she will not cave into hardliners who accuse bloggers of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
Hundreds more were injured in running battles as riot police broke up the rally near a commercial district in a pre-dawn raid in the capital Dhaka.
Dozens of demonstrators were also arrested, while the leader of the protests was put on a plane to the country's second city Chittagong.
Hundreds of bankers and stock market traders had to sleep in their offices as the sound of gunfire echoed around Dhaka's Motijheel Commercial Area through the night. Shops and vehicles were set alight while the roads were littered with rocks that protesters had thrown at police.
Police said they used sound grenades, water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse at least 70,000 Islamists who were camped at Motijheel as part of a push for a blasphemy law.
"We were forced to act after they unlawfully continued their gathering at Motijheel. They attacked us with bricks, stones, rods and bamboo sticks," Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman said, adding the protesters dispersed early yesterday.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital said that 11 bodies were brought to the clinic, including a policeman who had been hacked in the head with machetes. A total of 25 other people were killed in the protests, according to police and medical officials.
Violence also flared up at Hathazari, a town just outside Chittagong, where at least four people were killed after several thousand Islamists clashed with police and border guards.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled out a blasphemy law, saying she will not cave into hardliners who accuse bloggers of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
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