TWOKILLED IN SECOND DAY OF BANGLADESH STRIKE VIOLENCE
DHAKA, April 23 (Reuters) - At least two people were killed and 100 hurt in a second day of violence in Bangladesh on Monday, police and witnesses said, as an opposition-led strike kept businesses closed across the country.
The strike, which triggered clashes between police and activists in which two were killed when it began on Sunday, was called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition party.
The BNP, which has called for a third day of industrial action on Tuesday, says the government is involved in the disappearance of one of its young leaders, Ilyas Ali, who has been missing since last week. The governments denies the charges.
At least 50 people including 20 police officers were injured during Monday's fighting in Biswanath, Ali's ancestral
Ali, a regional head of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is the highest profile opposition politician to have “disappeared” since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took power in January 2009.
home in the country's northeast, witnesses said. Police opened fire on stone-throwing demonstrators, also using tear gas on the crowd, witnesses said. The violence comes during a general strike called by the opposition.
Mr Ali's car was found abandoned in the capital, Dhaka, on Tuesday night.
Correspondents say that Mr Ali, a regional head of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is the highest profile opposition politician to have "disappeared" since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party assumed power in January 2009. Police say they are still investigating the case - one of numerous disappearances to have taken place in the country over the past year.
The opposition blames the government - specifically the elite Rapid Action Battalion - for Mr Ali's disappearance, but they and the government deny any involvement.
Schools and businesses across the country have been affected by the opposition-led general strike. The worst of the violence however has been in Sylhet, 190km (120 miles) north-east of Dhaka, where Mr Ali lived. (Compiled from BBC and
Reuters reports)