DHAKA, Jan 29: Bangladesh on Saturday sought international help for the probe into the latest grenade attack on an Awami League rally that killed former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and four others in Habiganj on Thursday.

"We've requested for the FBI, Interpol and Scotland Yard for investigating the murders of ex-minister Shah AMS Kibria and others,' said foreign minister M Morshed Khan. "We want to do the investigation quickly... we want an in-depth investigation and want to see the bottom of it," he said.

Earlier, the members of slain Kibria's family urged the international community for effective steps to stop recurrence of bomb blasts and political killings in Bangladesh.

STRIKE: The first day of the 60-hour nationwide general strike was marked by sporadic clashes between the pickets and police, leaving over 100 injured, including a number of Awami League central leaders in the capital on Saturday.

Normal life was paralysed across the country as business were shut, motorised vehicle stayed away the road and almost all the private institutes remained closed during the first-day of the strike called to protest against the deadly grenade attack on an AL rally.

In Dhaka, police beat up the pickets indiscriminately and picked up as many as 50 people from the streets as they tried to organise protest rallies, while it opened fire on the opposition workers in Gaibandha district.

The Awami League and its left allies in the 11-party opposition alliance simultaneously called the strike from 6:00am Saturday to Monday evening.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in a statement said that the grenade attack on the AL rally was a "planned incident engineered by vested quarters to destabilize the country", and directed the authorities to take measures to check recurrence of such incidents.