Violence in Bangladesh claims 34 lives

At least 34 people were killed and more than 300, mostly policemen, were injured in Bangladesh in a fresh spate of violence that gripped as many as 15 districts. The violence broke out after Islamists reacted furiously to a tribunal awarded death sentence to one of their leaders for his involvement in war crimes during the 1971 Independence conflict, reported the Press Trust of India (PTI), Friday. At least 23 of the dead were shot in clashes between police and protesters that erupted after Jamaat-e-Islami party’s vice-president Delwar Hossain Sayedee was found guilty of war crimes, including murder, arson and rape. According to the report, Sayedee is the third person to be convicted by the controversial tribunal whose previous verdicts have also been met with outrage from Islamists who say the process is more about score settling than delivering justice. The latest unrest has brought the overall death toll to 50 since the first verdict was delivered on January 21. Among the dead were four policemen, two of whom were beaten to death after protesters hurled small homemade bombs at a police station in Gaibandha in north Bangladesh. A local cop was quoted as saying: “At least 10,000 Jamaat supporters attacked us. We were forced to open fire.” Sayedee, now best known in Bangladesh as a firebrand preacher, was convicted for setting ablaze 25 houses in a Hindu village and abetting the murders of two people including a Hindu man, according to a copy of the verdict. He led a pro-Pakistani militia who abducted three Hindu sisters and raped them for three days at a Pakistani camp, said the verdict. He also forced at least 100 Hindus to convert to Islam and made them say Islamic prayers, it added. Even the Government of Bangladesh accuses Jamaat leaders of being part of pro-Pakistani militias blamed for much of the 1971 carnage.