|
Violence leaves 19 dead in Bangladesh
(DPA)
29 October 2006
DHAKA - An uneasy calm prevailed in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Sunday after a weekend of political unrest left at least 19 dead and hundreds injured, witnesses said.
The death toll from continuing turmoil across the country rose as riot police and paramilitary frontier guards deployed in the beleaguered capital braced for another day of bloody street violence. Ten new deaths were reported Sunday by hospitals and sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs, boosting the overnight death toll from nine to 19. A senior police officer, who declined to be identified, said the fatalities included four critically wounded protestors who succumbed to their injuries in hospitals outside Dhaka. Violence erupted in Dhaka on Friday over differences in the formation of a non-party caretaker government for holding January’s parliamentary elections. The turmoil, which rocked Dhaka, quickly spread to other cities and towns across the country. Fierce clashes broke out between the supporters of the outgoing Nationalist-Islamist coalition government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and the activists of the main opposition party Awami League, police said. The failure to agree on a consensus figure to run the country in the three-month transition period triggered widespread political riots.
Print this article
Email this article
