At least one person was killed and upto 500 injured as rival Bangladeshi activists clashed as the deadline passed for candidates to register for elections. In the southern district of Shariatpur, Kazi Delwar Hossain, a local leader of the Awami League, was gunned down and up to 50 others were wounded in armed clashes between supporters of the party's nominee and his disgruntled rival on Wednesday, the independent newspaper said.
Similar clashes, which also involved backers of the Awami League's arch rival the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), were reported in eight other districts. The violence also disrupted train services for several hours between Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong and Eastern Sylhet after angry supporters of a failed candidate uprooted part of a track in the Brahmanbaria district, railway sources said. Elsewhere, protesters set up road barricades and held strikes.
Peaceful rallies were also held around Bangladesh, as tens of thousands of supporters held colourful rallies and parades in favour of candidates who won party nominations.
The Ekushey Private Television Network said that some 5,000 nominations had been filed for the 300 parliamentary seats by Wednesday’s deadline. Election authorities, who did not immediately have any figure, will scrutinise the registration papers till Friday.
Bureau Report