3 more killed in fresh clashes in B'desh, toll crosses 80

Dhaka, March 4: Violence continued unabated on the second day of the 48-hour nationwide strike in Bangladesh on Monday, as the death toll rose to 83 in clashes that erupted after the conviction of three top Islamist leaders for 1971 war crimes.

Fresh clashes killed three people, including a teenage boy, and at least 18 were injured in Satkhira and Sirajganj after police opened fire on unruly pickets during the strike called by Jamaat.

Three compartments of a train were badly burnt when alleged Jamaat-Shibir men hurled a bomb at the train at Kamalapur Railway Station, police said, adding that no one was hurt in the attack.

Railways minister Mazibul Hoque, after visiting the spot, accused Jamaat-Shibir men for the attack.

Violence in the country escalated on Thursday when a death sentence was handed down to 73-year-old Delwar Hossain Sayedee, vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami, by International Crimes Tribunal.

The two-day strike called by Jamaat coincided with President Pranab Mukherjee's maiden visit to the country.

Another shutdown has been called by the fundamentalist outfit's alliance partner and main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Khaleda Zia on the last day of the visit by Mukherjee on 5th March.

Earlier in the day, a low intensity crude cocktail bomb exploded outside a hotel here, where Mukherjee is staying.

Police said there was no casualty in the incident. Sayedee was the third JI politician to be convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal since the trial of war crimes suspects, mostly belonging to the Islamist group, began three years ago.

In the first verdict of the tribunal on January 21, former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad was sentenced to death on similar charges.

Another Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah was sentenced to life in February for atrocities during the war.

Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamic party in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, was opposed to the nation's 1971 Liberation War when officially 3 million people were killed.