950829

Bangladesh town

still tense

DHAKA: Paramilitary troops cleared roadblocks and urged people to stay calm after a two-day curfew was lifted on Tuesday in the Bangladesh town of Dinajpur, where seven people were killed in weekend clashes, witnesses said.

A number of residents were wounded in the clashes, which were prompted by newspaper reports implicating police in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl, Yasmin Akhtar. The reports said police claimed the girl was a prostitute.

Unidentified gunmen attacked and burned the offices of four newspapers on Sunday in the town of 150,000 to the north of the country.

"The town is still very tense. Even reporters with valid identity cards face difficulty in moving out freely," said Matiur Rahman, editor of daily Uttar Bangla.

"Bombs are still exploding here and there. Police have gone out of sight while soldiers have taken the charge of law and order," he told Reuters.

The Home (Interior) Ministry said late on Monday three people had been killed in the mayhem. It said the police superintendent at Dinajpur had been removed and three policemen arrested while a judicial inquiry was proceeding.

A police officer on Monday denied the newspaper allegations.

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

Local reporters said police allegedly picked up Akhtar as she was looking for a lift to Dinajpur on a nearby highway but she jumped from the police vehicle crying for help.

Police grabbed her again and sped away, allegedly raped and her and threw her body on the side of the highway.

The ministry said police actually tried to help her.

Akhtar's mother Sharifa Begum told newspapers on Tuesday her daughter was raped and killed by police and she demanded they be punished.

Begum said police did not hand over Akhtar's body to her and instead gave it to a charity organisation, Anjumane Mafidul Islam, for burial.-Reuter