At least seven people have been burnt to
death after suspected anti-government protesters set a bus full of
passengers on fire in eastern Bangladesh, amid spiralling political
unrest against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, police have said.
Several passengers were also critically
injured in the attack on Tuesday in the town of Chauddagram, which was
blamed on activists from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist
Party led by two-time former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Al Jazeera reports.
“Seven passengers were burnt to death in
the bus after the petrol bomb was thrown at 4am,” district police chief
Tuttul Chakrabarty told the AFP news agency.
“Five of the passengers are fighting for
their life as 40-80 per cent of their bodies were burnt. They have been
shifted to a hospital in the capital,” he said.
“It’s an act of murder and we’re going to hunt down culprits.”
The deaths bring the toll in the
month-long protests aimed at toppling Hasina to 54 – most of them
victims of firebomb attacks on buses and lorries – as opposition
activists try to enforce a transport blockade.
Authorities have stepped up the pressure
on 69-year-old Zia, who has been holed up in her office since January 3,
in a bid to halt the violence.CHECK OUT PICS
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