“A crowd of farmers laid siege to an electricity board office. They surrounded the place and the police fired. Five people died and 48 police were injured,” a police official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP.
The incident at an office at Shibganj in Chapai Nawabganj district, some 250 kilometres from Dhaka, followed a similar protest outside the same office on January 4 when police shot at the crowd killing two and injuring more than 15 people.
District superintendent of police Rezaul Karim told AFP earlier he could only confirm one dead and around 50 injured although he understood that six of the wounded were in a serious condition.
“They came to the office and attacked police. They torched 10 vehicles. We showed extreme restraint. At first we fired blanks to disperse them. Then, to protect ourselves, we fired (live ammunition),” he said.
Between 10 and 12 of those injured had suffered bullet wounds, said district administrator Rafiqul Islam.
Officials said the farmers were also demanding the release of three colleagues who were arrested on Sunday for their part in the January 4 demonstration.
Farmers in the area, one of the poorest in the impoverished country, need electricty to irrigate their land. They say, however, that erratic supply has resulted in poor yields.
Bangladesh has been hit by power shortages in recent years as fast growing industrial and domestic demand has outpaced supply, with some rural areas now getting only four to six hours of electricity per day.
The government has said the country has a power shortfall of about 500 megawatts, but experts put the figure at more than 1,000 megawatts.
Bangladesh is one of the world’s poorest countries, but its economy has been growing at more than five per cent a year since the early 1990s.
