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| Bangladesh |
| Sylhet violence leaves 2 dead |
| 2012-04-24 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Two people were killed and at least 50 including 10 coppers injured in fierce festivities between pro-hartal pickets and law enforcers at Bishwanath upazila headquarters in Sylhet during the BNP-enforced second straight countrywide hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... yesterday. The festivities, which lasted over two hours, also saw the agitators set fire to the upazila parishad building and lay siege to the local cop shoppe. Of the dead, Monwar Hossain, 30, was an activist of Jubo Dal, while the identity of the other could not yet be known, said police. Bishwanath is part of the constituency (Sylhet-2) of former BNP politician Ilias Ali, who along with his car driver disappeared in the early hours of April 18 from the capital's Banani area. Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... the main opposition BNP yesterday declared a third consecutive dawn-to-dusk hartal for today in protest over the disappearance of Ilias and his driver. "The government is staging a drama over the Ilias issue. It must stop the drama and return Ilias to us," Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of BNP, told a presser at the party's central office in the capital's Nayapaltan yesterday afternoon. He said, "Since the government has kidnapped Ilias, the agitation will continue until it returns him." Fakhrul said 371 people including party Vice-Chairman Selima Rahman were placed in durance vile, and 795 more were maimed in attacks by law enforcers and ruling party men yesterday. Hours after the announcement of the fresh hartal, three buses were torched in the capital's Nayapaltan, Matsya Bhaban intersection and Abdullahpur in Uttara, said police. |
| Posted by:Fred |