At least six people were killed Saturday in the third day of riots in Bangladesh that erupted after an opposition leader was sentenced to death for war crimes. Police said the two protesters died in clashes with security forces in the southern Chittagong district, while another was killed in northern Nilphamari district. The widespread violence comes ahead of a three-day nation-wide strike called by the opposition Jamaat-i-Islami and set to begin on Sunday.
In Chittagong, riots broke out after police tried to remove barriers that had been erected by party supporters on a main highway. Police said a number of passenger buses were also vandalised in the area located 340 kilometres south-east of the capital, Dhaka.
A teenage boy was killed when paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh force fired guns to disperse a group of protesters in Nilphamari, some 300 kilometers north of Dhaka. In Dhaka, activists from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party clashed with police officers and set fire to vehicles on the streets. Police fired rubber bullets and teargas as activists detonated home-made bombs, leaving at least 20 people injured. Riots after the conviction and sentencing of Delawar Hossain Sayedee for war crimes have so far killed 40 people, according to official figures.
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