{"id":6269,"date":"2013-05-07T08:03:38","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T03:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/?p=6269"},"modified":"2013-05-07T08:10:41","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T03:10:41","slug":"bangladesh-riot-death-toll-rises-to-37-after-islamic-hardilners-demanding-blasphemy-law-battled-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/en\/?p=6269","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh riot death toll rises to 37 after Islamic hardilners demanding blasphemy law battled police"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ba1\"<\/a>37 people were killed and hundreds more injured in Bangladesh today in fierce street fighting between police and Islamic hardliners demanding the death penalty for blasphemy.<\/p>\n

Rioters chanting ‘God is greatest!’ torched shops and vehicles, blocked roads and fought bloody battles with police in the capital of Dhaka and its suburbs.<\/p>\n

At least 70,000 activists ran amok in the capitals financial district overnight, forcing hundreds of workers to sleep in their offices as gunfire rattled through the night.<\/p>\n

Dozens of demonstrators were arrested, while the leader of the protests was put on a plane to the country’s second city Chittagong and the deputy chief was detained in the capital.<\/p>\n

Activists from the fundamentalist Hefajat-e-Islam group had marched along at least six roads, blocking transport between Dhaka and other cities.<\/p>\n

Police have said about 200,000 people marched to central Dhaka, where tensions erupted as protesters – armed with rocks – clashed with security officials, who beat them back with batons.<\/p>\n

It is believed rioting broke out after police tried to intercept protesters, many of whom had travelled from remote villages and had gathered in front of the country’s largest mosque.<\/p>\n

The protests had been instigated by Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi, the leader of Hefajat-e-Islam who is said to be around 90 years old.<\/p>\n

Hefajat-e-Islam is a newly created radical Islamist group that wants greater segregation of men and women, and a stricter Islamic education. It also want the restoration of pledges to Allah in the constitution.<\/p>\n

The government in Bangladesh has rejected the groups’ demands, saying the Muslim-majority nation is governed by secular liberal laws.<\/p>\n

Leaders have threatened to launch a campaign to oust the government unless their demands are met.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

37 people were killed and hundreds more injured in Bangladesh today in fierce street fighting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[221,224,155,137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-choice","category-news","category-other-countries","category-world","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}