Islamic militants mourn the dead in Bangladesh as unrest

The Islamist mourners were joined by activists of the right-wing main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) at the Baitul Mukarram mosque after Friday afternoon's holy Jumma prayers.

The special services were held to mourn the deaths of eight Islamic militants who were killed Tuesday when paramilitary police opened fire to disperse unruly mobs that were attacking police stations and tearing up railroad tracks in the eastern town of Brahmanbaria.

Bangladesh was rocked by a wave of violence and shutdowns after bloody protests flared over the arrest of two prominent Islamic clerics accused of inciting their followers last Saturday to murder a policeman inside a mosque in Dhaka.

Shaikul Hadith Azizul Huq and Mufti Fazlul Huq Amini are also facing charges before a criminal court for alleged death threats against two High Court judges for banning fatwas, or religious edicts, by Islamic clerics.

Residents in Brahmanbaria, a stronghold of Islamic militants, said the situation in the town was calm but police continued to patrol ravaged neighbourhoods.

Life returned to normal Friday, with shops and businesses reopened and public transports and private cars again on the streets of Dhaka following two consecutive days of general strikes enforced by the Islamist groups and their BNP allies.

The protracted strike cut train links between Dhaka and other cities. A train crash on Wednesday in which three people were killed and scores injured has been blamed on sabotage activities by the Islamic militants who were demanding the release of the detained clerics.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a group of newspaper editors Thursday that her centre-left government would not bow to religious fanatics trying to destroy democracy.

Hasina blamed the unrest on BNP and opposition chief Begum Khaleda Zia, whom she accused of fanning communalism in the Moslem majority country.

The clerics, who grabbed newspaper headlines in 1994 for their fatwa against exiled Bangladeshi feminist author Taslima Nasreen, were among 120 Islamic militants arrested in a police crackdown on religious extremists in the past week.

(dpa)