Fatalities rise as strike continues

Police opened fire yesterday on hundreds of stone-throwing demonstrators who stormed a police station on the second day of an opposition-sponsored general strike protesting a politician's disappearance. Police said one person was killed and more than 50 others injured.

The death occurred in northeastern Sylhet city where the protesters, armed with sticks and stones, clashed with police, stormed into a police station and vandalised several government offices, the area's police chief Shakwat Hossain said.

Hossain provided no further details.

The death was the third strike-related fatality since Saturday, police said. A bus driver died when arsonists set his vehicle on fire and a driver was killed when strikers chased his car, causing it to lose control and smash into a roadside building, also in Dhaka, police said.

Police hostility

Opposition spokesman Mirza Fakhrul Islam accused the police of attacking opposition activists and said they would extend the strike into a third day Tuesday.

Police said separately they had detained a senior opposition leader and nine other people in Dhaka, the capital, while crude bombs exploded in another district, though no one was injured by them.

Dhaka's private Somoy TV reported that police opened fire after tear gas failed to stop the crowds from attacking Bishnatpur police station in Sylhet, 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Dhaka.