DHAKA: Arson attacks and clashes between local residents and Urdu-speaking people left 10 people dead here on Saturday, police said.

The clashes broke out early in the day at a shantytown in Dhaka where the Urdu-speaking people live. Later in the day, unidentified people set fire to homes in the shantytown, said police official Imtiaj Ahmed.

He said nine people died in the fires and one in the clashes. At least seven members of a family were burned to death after they were trapped in a fire, Ahmed said.

Many other people were injured in the clashes and fires, though police did not give a specific figure.

Ahmed said the clashes were over disputes about the illegal use of electricity and ruled out that they were part of any communal tension. He said two groups of Urdu-speaking people initially quarrelled over the use of firecrackers during Shab-i-Barat on Friday night, and the feud later spread, triggering the clashes.

Police were forced to fire rubber bullets and tear gas after the clashes broke out, Ahmed said.

Authorities have ordered an investigation into the incident, said Asaduzzaman Kamal, Bangladesh’s junior home minister.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2014