At least 12 people, including two candidates and two children, were killed and over 200 injured in Bangladesh in violence during the 5th phase of voting, the deadliest so far in the local body polls being held on party lines for the first time in the country, media reports said today.
Deaths were reported from Jamalpur, Chittagong, Noakhali, Comilla, Panchagarh and Narayanganj, according to the Daily Star.
More than 200 people were also injured, many of them received bullet injuries, as the supporters of chairmen and member candidates clashed yesterday, when 717 unions under 45 districts went to polls for Union Parishads (councils) amid allegations of rigging and other malpractices.
Jamalpur saw the worst violence in which at least four people, including two children, were killed.
They died after police opened fire to put an end to a clash between supporters of two candidates.
District police chief Md Nizamuddin said, "Police resorted to firing to bring the situation under control".
Jamalpur Deputy Commissioner Md Shahabuddin Khan said a committee had been formed with Additional District Magistrate Md Alamgir as its head to probe the incident.
The two candidates killed in the violence were Kamal Uddin, BNP rebel chairman aspirant at Comilla's Titas, and Md Yasin, who was vying for the post of member at Chittagong's Karnaphuli.
Before the fifth-phase polls, the highest number of people killed in election-day violence was 10, and it was in the first of the six phases of the staggered polls.
More than 100 people have died in election-related violence in the three and a half months since the announcement of the election schedule.
Most of the casualties were the results of clashes between supporters of ruling Awami League candidates and party rebels in around 60 unions.
