DHAKA, April 6 (News Agencies) - Bangladesh police fired at hundreds of Muslim demonstrators Friday as more violent protests erupted over the arrest of an opposition party leader, witness said.
Protestors lobbed homemade bombs and stones at police, who retaliated with gunfire and tear gas, in clashes near a Dhaka mosque after weekly prayers, they said.
Several people, mostly from the opposition Jamaat-i-Islami party, and including a press photographer, were wounded with dozens of protestors arrested.
The demonstrators were protesting against the arrest on Wednesday of party secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, who was jailed for one month.
Before the clashes, several hundred police had taken up positions around the National Baitul Mukarram Mosque fearing violence, witnesses said.
Muslims emerging from the mosque had started shouting anti-government slogans and throwing rocks and bombs at police.
Police retaliated with gunfire and tear gas, driving the protestors back into mosque.
The protests followed similar clashes Thursday in the nearby Purana Paltan district when young activists protesting the arrest of Mujahid lobbed homemade bombs at police.
Nearly 60 people, including eight policemen, were injured, some seriously, and police arrested nearly 200 opposition activists. They also raided the offices of Jamaat and a front organization.
The Jamaat-i-Islami is a member of a four-party alliance led by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Mujahid's arrest came a day after the end of a three-day nationwide shutdown called to demand Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed's resignation and early elections.
The strike left five people dead, including three rickshaw drivers and a fisherman, and several hundred injured and arrested. A new 72-hour stoppage is set to start from Monday.
