DHAKA: A two-day general strike called after the killing of a Bangladeshi woman opposition politician in a grenade attack ended yesterday without major violence as thousands of mourners attended her funeral.
Ivy Rahman, chief of the women's wing of the main opposition Awami League and a veteran grassroots leader, died on Tuesday, three days after she lost her legs in a grenade attack on a rally she was attending.
Besides Rahman, at least 18 people were killed and more than 150 people wounded when grenades exploded as former prime minister Sheikh Hasina finished addressing thousands of supporters of her Awami League party on Saturday. Party leaders and media said the attack by unknown assailants that killed Rahman and others was aimed at Hasina. The party called the strike to protest against the attack.
About 15,000 party supporters, reciting verses from the Quran, accompanied Rahman's wooden, flower-strewn coffin to a cemetery after prayers at Dhaka's Baitul Mokarram mosque.
Police in riot gear stood behind steel barricades as mourners poured out of the mosque but there was no violence.
Earlier, police clashed with anti-government protesters near Hasina's house in Dhaka and five activists were injured. Protests were held in other parts of the volatile Muslim-majority democracy including the port city of Chittagong and Rajshahi in the northwest but there were no reports of serious violence with only a few minor clashes reported. Protesters, some carrying black flags, chanted, "Khaleda, we want to know why Ivy is dead?" and "Revenge, Revenge!"
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