DHAKA: At least five people were shot dead as police clashed with Islamist demonstrators in Bangladesh on Saturday, a day after clashes between police and hardline Islamist protesters against a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi left another five dead. Modi visited two key Hindu temples in rural districts of southern Bangladesh on Saturday.
The violence, which began Friday at the main mosque in the capital Dhaka, rocked several key districts in the Muslim-majority nation of 168 million.
Following Friday's fatal shootings, five more people were shot dead in new clashes in the eastern border district of Brahmanbaria, two doctors told AFP on Saturday, as police clashed with villagers and supporters of the hardline Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam.
"Three were brought dead. Two died in the hospital. All five have gun-shot wounds," Abdullah al Mamun, a doctor at the emergency ward of Brahmanbaria 25-bed state-run hospital, told AFP. "Another 12 were brought in the hospital with gun-shot wounds and condition of one is critical. He was shot in the head," he said.
Brahmanbaria police refused to comment on the deaths, though two officers said Islamists had staged protests in several places in the district Saturday.
A journalist in Brahmanbaria said some 3,000 protesters including Hefazat supporters and Muslim villagers demonstrated in the district, while a doctor said protesters torched several government offices during the clashes.
Bangladesh has deployed Border Guard Bangladesh, which also acts as a reserve paramilitary force for law and order, in many parts in the country since Friday night.
Authorities also appeared to have restricted access to Facebook after images and reports of the violence were posted.
But on Saturday, thousands turned out to protest against police having opened fire and against Modi's visit for independence day celebrations, following calls for nationwide demonstrations from Hefazat, the country's largest hardline Islamist outfit.
Several thousand Hefazat supporters staged protests at Hathazari, a rural town outside the country's second-largest city which witnessed the worst violence on Friday when four protesters were shot dead. A fifth protester had been killed Friday in Brahmanbaria.
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