[Pak Daily Times] Clashes in Bangladesh between police and supporters of the country's biggest Islamic party left five dead on Friday during protests linked to ongoing war crimes trials, police and media said.Jamaat-e-Islami
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The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
activists have been staging countrywide strikes and rallies for months to protest against the trials which have placed nearly their entire party leadership in the dock.
Friday's first incident occurred when politicians entered a village in northwestern Chapainawabganj district to arrest party activists accused of torching a power plant in such a protest last month.
About 6,000 villagers gathered to try and prevent the arrests, leading police to open fire.
"We at first used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the mob, but they attacked us with hand bombs, sticks and bricks, forcing us to open fire," deputy district police chief Motiur Rahman told AFP.
"We have heard the news of three men killed, but we have not seen any dead bodies," he said.
Local media reports quoted villagers saying three Jamaat supporters were killed, two on the spot and one on the way to hospital.
In a separate but similar wave of protests in northwestern Sirajganj district, two Jamaat supporters died after being hit with bullets, local police chief Shamsul Huq told AFP.
Police officers went to arrest an activist also accused of violence last month while protesting against the war crimes trial, but they too faced defiance from several thousand villagers.
"They hurled handmade bombs and fired at us. We also retaliated with gun fire," Huq said.
With the latest deaths, 94 people have now been killed in festivities linked to the trials since the war crimes court handed down the first of its verdicts in January. Two Jamaat leaders have already been convicted by the tribunal, which critics accuse of trumping up charges in a bid by the government to settle political scores, rather than deliver justice.