Three activists shot dead in Bangladesh

Three opposition activists were killed and around 100 people injured yesterday when police opened fire at Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallies in the country’s southeast.
Police said the shootings took place in the towns of Chandpur and Laksmipur after the BNP held large demonstrations to demand that the government resign in a dispute about electoral reforms.
“They attacked policemen with stones and bricks. We fired back in self-defence. Two BNP activists were killed,” Chandpur police deputy chief Amir Zafar told AFP.
In Laksmipur, one person died when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at more than 4,000 activists after they “became unruly and attacked police with guns”, local police chief Golam Sarwar said.
Police had earlier banned rallies planned yesterday in the capital city of Dhaka over fears of violent clashes between the BNP and the ruling Awami League party.
The BNP and its allies had called for a mass demonstration to demand that the government stand down.
But the Awami League also declared they would hold a rally in central Dhaka yesterday, leading to police outlawing any rallies in the city during the day.
Bangladesh has a history of violent and even deadly clashes between political activists, and the BNP has recently enforced a series of strikes in a new wave of unrest.
Opposition anger was fuelled last year when the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina scrapped a system under which neutral caretaker governments oversaw elections.
The next national election is due to be held by early 2014.