Dhaka, Jan 28 (IANS) Thousands of mourners carrying the coffin of a top Awami League leader, who was killed in a grenade attack, went on the rampage Friday, clashing with police and damaging vehicles in the Bangladesh capital.

Former finance minister and opposition MP S.A.M.S. Kibria and four others were killed and at least 150 wounded as a powerful grenade went off at an Awami League rally in the northeastern district of Habiganj, 264 km from here, Thursday evening.

Awami League Friday announced a 72-hour nationwide general strike beginning Saturday to protest the killing of Kibria.

The strike comes right ahead of the seven-nation SAARC summit, scheduled to begin in Dhaka Feb 6 and 7, and the pre-summit meetings here Feb 1.

Witnesses and police said hundreds of pallbearers attending the funeral of Kibria became angry Friday, which was a weekly holiday in Muslim majority Bangladesh, and damaged scores of motor vehicles.

The clash began as police used clubs and teargas shells to disperse the mob, witnesses said.

Thousands of people gathered for the funeral of Kibria who had served as finance minister in the cabinet of former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina from 1996 to 2001.

The government earlier deployed a huge contingent of paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles and police in riot gear in the capital fearing violence.

Hasina blamed the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and its ally in the coalition government - Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh, for the killing.

"We'll continue the movement till the fall of the coalition government led by BNP...otherwise the killings will not be stopped...people will not be saved," Hasina told journalists.

The Habiganj blast was the second attack on an Awami League rally after the grenade attack on Hasina's meeting in Dhaka Aug 21, 2004, which left 22 people dead and over 200 injured.