VIOLENCE CONTINUE IN BANGLADESH

VIOLENCE CONTINUE IN BANGLADESH

At least four more people were killed on the third of violence in Bangladesh today, taking the death toll to 50 following the capital punishment given to a top leader of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami for 'crimes against
humanity' during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.The current violence broke out on Thursday after 73-year- old Delwar Hossain Sayedee, vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), was sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal for 'crimes against humanity' during the 1971 liberation war.

The four deaths were reported from southeastern Chittagong and northwestern Nilphamari districts in clashes between law enforcement agencies and JI activists who went on rampage in several districts, attacking vehicles and shops.Witnesses said the casualties occurred in firings between
the JI activists and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh(BGB) and police, which also left several policemen injured.Police opened fire at JI protesters, killing three people, including a teenager, outside the port city of
Chittagong. In Jaldhaka, police opened fire to disperse unruly
protesters leading to the death of 15-year-old Atiqul Islam.
Meanwhile, according to the reports the JI protestors set
ablaze several vehicles and two Hindu temples in Bagerhat and
Rajshahi area.'In every incident Jamaat hoodlums were the attackers.
They launched attacks on police and workers of the Grand
Alliance and they torched mosques, houses of the Hindu
community and their temples,' Information minister Hassanul
Haque Inu told a press conference.
A police officer, Mohammad Aslam Uddin, was quoted by the
bdnews24.com as saying 'we heard that the Dumuria Sharbajaneen
temple in the Ramchandrapur Union has been set on fire.'
Aslam said the residences of ruling Awami League's
Banogram Union unit President Narayan Chandra Basu Chowdhury
and Taposh Sen of Barurbula village under the same union were
also set ablaze, it said.
The bdnews24.com quoted police as saying that another
Hindu temple at Nalcira union at Gauranadi upazila of Barisal
was set on fire in the early hours of today.
Police blamed Jamaat-Shibir for attacks on Hindu
households and shops. Jamaat, however, refuted the
allegations, the news website said.

Prof. John Kurakar