DHAKA, Aug 22: Supporters of the opposition Awami League party went on the rampage across Bangladesh on Sunday in protest against a bomb attack on the party's rally in the capital that killed 16 people and injured over 200 others on Saturday.
Sunday's violence left another 200 people injured and caused widespread damage to property. Panic gripped the local people as law-enforcement personnel recovered two live grenades from the Ramna Hawkers Market, near the Awami League office, and from inside the protected Dhaka Central Jail.
Protesters set fire to a Dhaka-bound inter-city passenger train in Bhairab and damaged another train in Chittagong while they clashed with police and pro-government activists in at least 10 districts where local units of Awami League observed strike.
In Dhaka, police, paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles and Armed Police Battalion have been guarding major crossing and thoroughfares. Meanwhile, the government formed a one-member judicial inquiry commission to probe into Saturday's bomb attack.
Justice Joynul Abedin, a senior judge of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, has been asked to submit his report within three weeks, sources in the Prime Minister's Office said.
Earlier in the Sunday morning, police registered two cases - one in connection with the bomb attack on the Awami League rally and the other relating to the backlash in which protesters damaged vehicles and assaulted law-enforcement personnel.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Hasina, president of Awami League who narrowly escaped the explosion, blamed the BNP-led four-party ruling alliance for the bomb attack and demanded an 'international probe.'
"The government wants to cling to power by resorting to killings, and, therefore, patronises terrorists," Ms Hasina told reporters at her Sudha Sadan residence. "So, they will never do an authentic investigation."
Awami League arranged funeral prayers at different places of the country for victims of the attacks. The main congregation was held at the South gate of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque after Asr prayers after the authorities refused to hand over the bodies to Awami League.
Among the Awami League leaders injured in the blast, the state of all but the party's former president of the women front Ivy Rahman, was in stable condition on Sunday, the hospital and clinic sources said.
Ivy Rahman, said to be in a critical state, was at the intensive care unit of Dhaka Combined Military Hospital Sunday evening. In a related development, the US embassy in Dhaka expressed 'profound concern' over the bomb attack.
"We condemn this blatant and reckless act of political terrorism," the US embassy said in a statement Sunday. "Democracy and the future of Bangladesh would have suffered a terrible blow if this audacious commando-style assault had succeeded in eliminating the leadership of the major opposition political party."
The heads of mission of the European Union in Dhaka also condemned the attack and urged the government to "thoroughly investigate the attacks and bring those responsible to justice." The union diplomats assigned in Dhaka also called for adequate protection for the opposition leaders.
