Over 1000 arrested after clashes (From Asian Image)

Over 1000 arrested after clashes

10:12am Monday 30th January 2012 in News

Police are reported to have opened fire on crowds of stone-throwing opposition activists in several Bangladesh towns, killing at least three people and injuring more than 100.

The opposition party said 1,200 of its activists were arrested, although the figure could not immediately be confirmed.

The main Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its key Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami are demanding an independent caretaker government oversees elections. The government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina scrapped the 15-year-old system last year, saying it contradicted the constitution.

The opposition, led by Sheikh Hasina’s arch-rival, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, says elections will be rigged if held under the current government and without a caretaker system in place.

Clashes during Sunday’s nationwide protests were reported in about a dozen towns, Desh television station said.

Two men died from bullet wounds at a government hospital in the eastern town of Chandpur, a doctor told reporters.

They were shot by police who fired at a procession of protesters trying to march forward by breaking a police barricade, the United News of Bangladesh agency said.

Separately, a youth died and four people were treated for bullet wounds at a government hospital in Laxmipur, another eastern town, according to Dr Mohammad Nizam Uddin.

The identities of the dead were not immediately clear. Ms Zia’s party claimed one was a party activist, while media reports said two others were rickshaw pullers.

Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, the country’s police chief, said authorities would investigate the violence to determine what actually happened.