 "Violence rocks Bangladesh during BNP's 48-hr blockade")
Two more persons have been killed in fresh violence that rocked cities across Bangladesh taking the death toll to 11, as a 48-hour nationwide blockade enforced by the main opposition BNP entered its second day today.
The Awami League and BNP are at loggerheads over the system for conducting the polls. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has formed a multi-party interim set-up while the BNP wants elections under a non-party interim government.
The opposition led by BNP is demanding that the polls scheduled for January 5 should be shelved until the dispute over the poll-time government is settled.
The TV channels reported that Jamaat activists attacked a joint team of BGB and police exploding at least 200 crude bombs as they raided a village madrassa, known to be a hideout of the fundamentalist party, prompting the law enforcers to fire gunshots in which the 40-year-old activist was killed.
The other casualty was reported by state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital where a 42-year woman succumbed to her wounds a day after a bomb hurled from an opposition procession landed squarely on her head, exploding the skull.
Eleven people have died since the election commission announced the schedule for upcoming polls on Monday evening setting January 5, 2014 for the voting.
Other victims include a member of paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), two workers of ruling Awami League and an activist of BNP while the rests appeared to be ordinary people like rickshaw drivers and office goers.
BNP and its Islamist allies called a 48-hour nationwide blockade immediately after the EC announcement demanding the plans be shelved.
Railway links between Dhaka and Chittagong and northeastern Sylhet were cut off in protest against the "election of farce", prompting authorities to send paramilitary troops to guard the capital and other cities.
BNP Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed had yesterday said that essential service-oriented organisations and their vehicles, mass media and ambulances would fall beyond the blockade's purview.
The Awami League and BNP are at loggerheads over the system for conducting the polls. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has formed a multi-party interim set-up while the BNP wants elections under a non-party interim government.
The opposition led by BNP is demanding that the polls scheduled for January 5 should be shelved until the dispute over the poll-time government is settled.
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Police said an activist of Jamaat-e-Islami, a crucial BNP ally, died in pre-dawn clashes with paramilitary BGB troops in southwestern Satkhira, where the Jamaat workers allegedly hacked to death two workers of ruling Awami League yesterday.
The TV channels reported that Jamaat activists attacked a joint team of BGB and police exploding at least 200 crude bombs as they raided a village madrassa, known to be a hideout of the fundamentalist party, prompting the law enforcers to fire gunshots in which the 40-year-old activist was killed.
The other casualty was reported by state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital where a 42-year woman succumbed to her wounds a day after a bomb hurled from an opposition procession landed squarely on her head, exploding the skull.
Eleven people have died since the election commission announced the schedule for upcoming polls on Monday evening setting January 5, 2014 for the voting.
Other victims include a member of paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), two workers of ruling Awami League and an activist of BNP while the rests appeared to be ordinary people like rickshaw drivers and office goers.
BNP and its Islamist allies called a 48-hour nationwide blockade immediately after the EC announcement demanding the plans be shelved.
Railway links between Dhaka and Chittagong and northeastern Sylhet were cut off in protest against the "election of farce", prompting authorities to send paramilitary troops to guard the capital and other cities.
BNP Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed had yesterday said that essential service-oriented organisations and their vehicles, mass media and ambulances would fall beyond the blockade's purview.