Clashes in Bangladesh as JI activists protest leader's death order

Islamists clashed with police in several Bangladesh cities on Thursday as part of a nation-wide strike to protest against their leader being sentenced to death for war crimes, police said. Officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at rock-throwing protesters who tried to block several key highways in the north-western cities of Bogra and Rajshahi, police officers told AFP.
Protesters exploded cocktail bombs in Bogra, a stronghold of the country's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-i-Islami, local police chief Saifuzzaman Faruqui said. "At least 140 Jamaat activists have been arrested from the city to prevent violence," he said. Nearly 100 Jamaat activists were also arrested from Rangpur region, police said.