950828

Clashes over

alleged rape

leave 7 dead

in B'desh

DINAJPUR, (Bangladesh): Seven people were killed and more than 100 wounded during clashes in northern Bangladesh after newspaper reports implicated police in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl, witnesses said on Monday.

Witnesses said hundreds of unidentified gunmen attacked and burned down four newspaper offices in the town of Dinajpur on Sunday night. The newspapers had given prominence to the rape and murder of Yasmin Akhtar last Thursday, and implicated local police in her death.

A police officer on Monday denied the allegations.

Witnesses said that when residents, journalists and print workers resisted the gunmen with sticks and stones, the attackers opened fire with automatic weapons, killing seven people.

The authorities clamped an indefinite curfew over Dinajpur and called in paramilitary troops to guard the town as the All-Party Unity, a combination of opposition parties, lawyers and other groups, called a daylong strike for Monday.

The government ordered a judicial inquiry into Akhtar's death.-Reuter