DHAKA
Nine people were killed and scores wounded during nationwide dawn to dusk general strike which the Bangladeshi Jamaat-e-Islami called for in protest of the Thursday execution of Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah. Of the dead, six were Jamaat Shibir employees and two ruling party members.
All types of vehicle transport were stopped on the highways while all private and public schools, colleges and universities were closed throughout the country. Supper market and shops were also shut in Dhaka. Bangladesh was almost in a state of shutdown during the strike planned from 6am to 6pm local time.
Three members of Jamaat's student front were killed in the northern district of Lalmonirhat as police fire dispersed the Jamat Shibir men as they put up a barricade.
Manto Miah (35), a ruling party member, was beaten to death by miscreants in Lalmonirhat on Sunday.
Two Jamaat exployees and another man were killed and 20 others were wounded by bullets in a clash between Jamaat and police in the northern district of Joypurhat.
Habibur Rahman Habi (35), a member of the jamaat, was killed by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite force, by bullet fire in the south-western district of Sathkhira on Sunday.
Ruling party student leader Mirajul Islam Miraj was chopped to death in eastern district of Lakhmipur on Sunday evening.
At least 10 people were injured in a clash between Jamaat workers and police in the northern district of Rajshai on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson and opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia urged the people to get united to save the country and free its democracy from the conspirator and impending danger in a message issued on Sunday, on the eve of victory day, December 16.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami acting secretary general Dr. Shafiqur Rahman claimed in a press statement that more than three hundred leaders and workers were injured by law enforcing fire and more than two hundred members of the jamaat were detained.
Thirteen people were killed on Saturday from the Jamaat in protests against the execution of Quader Mollah. Earlier on Friday, seven people were killed.
A key figure in the Islamist opposition party Jamaat-e-Islami, Mollah was executed at the at Dhaka Central Jail on Thursday evening.
Mollah was convicted by Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of atrocities he allegedly committed during the 1971 independence war from Pakistan.
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