DHAKA, Feb 23: Bangladesh police fired live rounds on Saturday in fresh clashes with supporters of the country’s largest Islamic party, whose leaders are standing trial for war crimes, killing two people.

The clashes came a day after the Muslim-majority nation was hit by deadly violence between police and Jamaat-i-Islami supporters demanding the execution of bloggers they accuse of blasphemy, which left four people dead and about 200 injured.

In Saturday’s clashes, police said they fired live rounds after up to 5,000 JI supporters attacked them with stones and firearms just outside northern Pabna town, killing two people and injuring about 30.

“We fired in self defence,” Pabna’s deputy police chief Mollick Ruhul Amin told AFP.

“One of our officers was also hit by (a) bullet and at least 10 to 12 policemen were injured,” he added.

Jamaat-i-Islami party called a half-day strike in Pabna district to protest what they say were attacks by ruling Awami League supporters on its members and offices on Friday.

Abu Taleb, district Jamaat secretary, told AFP that police shot dead unarmed protesters, while denying that its own activists had attacked them.

The party has mounted a string of nationwide strikes since last month, protesting trials of 10 of its leaders, including its head and deputy head, for war crimes allegedly committed in the 1971 independence war against Pakistan.—AFP