DHAKA: At the least a dozen individuals had been reported injured in clashes between police and Islamist demonstrators in Bangladesh on Sunday, the third day of protests towards the go to of India’s Hindu-nationalist chief.
5 individuals died on Friday, and one other six the following day, after police shot at demonstrators in a number of main districts throughout the Muslim-majority nation of 168 million individuals.
The protesters — principally from the hardline Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam — had been indignant on the go to of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Bangladesh marked 50 years of independence, accusing him of stoking communal violence towards Muslims in his nation.
At one new protest in Narayanganj simply exterior the capital Dhaka, Hefazat supporters chanted “motion, motion, direct motion” as they blocked the important thing freeway linking Dhaka with the port metropolis of Chittagong.
A whole bunch of demonstrators burnt furnishings and tyres on the roads as they chanted anti-Modi slogans and referred to as on authorities to examine the shootings.
Police fired tear gasoline and rubber bullets after the protesters barricaded elements of the freeway. A police spokesman informed AFP they’d since left the highway.
Prothom Alo, the nation’s greatest Bengali-language every day, mentioned at the least 15 individuals had been injured within the Narayanganj clashes.
Hefazat spokesman Jakaria Noman Foyezi informed AFP hundreds of its supporters joined demonstrations at its headquarters at Hathazari exterior Chittagong, which is house to a prime Islamic seminary.
The Islamist group has a nationwide community, and it has held massive protests previously demanding that Bangladesh introduce blasphemy legal guidelines.
Protests had been additionally held within the northeastern metropolis of Sylhet, the japanese district of Brahmanbaria and in Bosila, a Dhaka suburb, however there have been no stories of violence, native media reported.
As Bangladesh celebrated independence, human rights teams criticised the federal government for what they described as rising authoritarianism, together with pressured disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Different teams — together with college students, leftists and different Islamist outfits — had additionally staged protests towards Modi’s go to on Friday and Saturday.
