1 dead, dozens injured in Bangladesh hartal violence

An auto-rickshaw driver was dead and dozens of others including cops injured Wednesday in stray incidents of violence during the first day of a nationwide general strike enforced by Bangladesh's largest Islamic party. Hours after the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court awarded the capital punishment to Assistant Secretary General of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Party Abdul Quader Mollah, it called a 48-hour nationwide hartal for Sept. 18 and 19, protesting what it referred to as "the government hatching conspiracy to kill its leaders and running anti-Islamic activities, state-sponsored repression." Jamaat in a statement said the non-stop 48-hour hartal, enforced since Wednesday morning, is also to demand release of its leaders including Mollah. Nearly a dozen handmade bombs and cocktails were exploded in Dhaka in the early hours of hartal when dozens of vehicles across Bangladesh were smashed or set on fire. In southeastern Noakhali district, some 158 km southeast of capital Dhaka, the pro-hartal activists smashed vehicles and hurled stones at drivers. Anisur Rahman, the district's police chief, told Xinhua over phone that the pickets attacked driver Abu Naser when he reached a main road with his auto-rickshaw in Noakhali's Companyganj sub- district in the early hours of hartal. "The driver died in a hospital where he was rushed with critical injuries shortly after the pro-hartal activists at about 7:00 a.m. (local time) hurled stones on his head," he said. Jamaat activists also reportedly attacked a police patrol in Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka, when a cop sustained bullet injury. The pro-hartal activists also reportedly fought pitched battles with the law enforcers in Chittagong, leaving dozens of people including police and party men injured. Stray incidents of clash, arson, vandalism, chase and counter- chase, detention have been reported in capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country in the early hours of Wednesday's hartal. Rubber bullets and live ammunition were reportedly fired in places to disperse stone-throwing protesters during the first day' s strike. On account of the hartal, the usually busy streets of the capital looked almost deserted as most means of public and private transportation remained off the roads. Although inter-district buses stayed off the roads, the authorities claimed that operation of trains, launches and flights was usual. Law enforcers were out in the capital streets early morning much before the hartal convenors and appeared not to let the pro- hartal pickets gather anywhere to bring out a procession. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League ( AL) party denies the accusations of Jamaat, saying they are creating an anarchy in the name of political programs to foil the ongoing war crimes trial. Jamaat said AL has targeted the party to split the 18-party opposition alliance led by ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, which has been staging demonstration demanding the restoration of the non-party caretaker system to oversee the next general elections slated for early 2014. Five current and former leaders including Mollah of Bangladesh Jamaat have already been sentenced to either death or life imprisonment for crimes against humanity linked to the country's war of independence. Apart from several other Jamaat senior officials, two leaders of Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are also standing trial on charges of crimes against humanity.