Clashes in Bangladesh as Islamists protest leader’s death order
DHAKA AFP OCT 30, 2014 - Islamists clashed with police in several Bangladesh cities on Thursday as part of a nationwide strike to protest against their leader being sentenced to death for war crimes, police said.
Officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at rock-throwing protesters who tried to block several key highways in the northwestern cities of Bogra and Rajshahi, police officers told AFP.
Protesters exploded cocktail bombs in Bogra, a stronghold of the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, local police chief Saifuzzaman Faruqui said.
“At least 140 Jamaat activists have been arrested from the city to prevent violence,” he said.