DPA/Dhaka
Unidentified youths fired gunshots targeting the political office of Bangladesh’s former prime minister on Sunday night, party officials and police said.
Khaleda Zia, chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and leader of an 18-party opposition coalition, was inside the office when the incident occurred around 11:30 pm (17:30 GMT), said Maruf Kamal Khan, press officer of the opposition leader.
“The youths came by two motorbikes, suddenly stopped in front of the opposition leader’s office, fired their guns thrice and left the place quickly,” Khan told reporters in front of the party office located in the Gulshan neighbourhood of the capital Dhaka.
No casualties were reported.
An investigation into the shooting was launched, said police officer Lutful Kabir.
The gun attack took place nearly an hour after the opposition announced a nationwide strike for today in protest of recent deaths in clashes between Islamists and law enforcement in northern Chapainawabganj and Sirajganj districts. The clashes occurred over last month’s sentencing of an Islamic leader to death for war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.
The opposition party condemned the shootings and alleged that the government had completely failed to restore order and ensure people’s security.
“These (shootings) are the reflection of the government’s failure to ensure citizens’ safety, including a former prime minister, and restore order. These are the indications of danger,” said Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting general secretary of BNP.
At least 95 people have been killed in violence that erupted across Bangladesh after Delawr Hossain Sayedee, vice president of Jamaat-e-Islami party, an ally of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was convicted on February 28 of murder, rape, looting and the forced conversion of Hindus to Islam during the 1971 war.
The nine-month war left estimated 3mn people dead and 200,000 women raped. The war crimes trial began in 2010.