At least two persons were killed and nearly 50, including five policemen, injured as fresh violence erupted in Bangladesh today on the second day of the 48-hour nationwide strike to protest the death sentence given to a top leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami for war crimes.
A Jamaat cadre was killed and 47 others were injured in a clash with police in Meherpur district while a commuter died after being attacked by picketers in Sirajganj Sadar upazila.
The right-wing party, however, claimed its another cadre died in the clashes.
Police said they opened fire when strikers attacked an officer with sharp objects in the district. The firing left one dead.
"They attacked us with firearms as we wanted to restore vehicular movement on the highway which they blocked... We were forced to open fire as several of our colleagues were critically injured," a police officer told newsmen at the scene at Meherpur, bordering India.
Other districts also witnessed vandalism, explosions and detention as the strike stepped into second consecutive day.
A senior leader of Meherpur Jamaat unit said another party cadre, who was injured during the clash, succumbed on way to hospital. Besides, he said their 10 activists sustained bullet injuries during the clash.
Yesterday, one person was killed and several others injured in the violent protests.
Jamaat enforced the 48-hour strike from yesterday to protest the Supreme Court verdict on its leader 65-year-old Abdul Quader Mollah.
The apex court on Tuesday sentenced Jamaat assistant secretary general Mollah to death, overruling the judgment of a special tribunal that had given him life term for war crimes committed during the country's 1971 liberation war.
This is the first such case which came for the apex court review while two war crimes tribunals are trying the high profile accused of "crimes against humanity" during the war, mostly belonging to Jamaat, which was opposed to the country's independence from Pakistan.
Bangladesh witnessed the launch of the war crimes trial in 2010 in line with ruling Awami League's election pledges and so far two International Crimes Tribunals indicted over a dozen people, mostly Jamaat leaders.
The two tribunals have already handed down death penalty to four and long term or life imprisonments to two others.
Officially three million people were killed in the liberation war during which Jamaat allegedly masterminded the murders of the country's leading intelligentsia including professors, doctors and journalists.
