BREAKING NEWS
This story is from our news.com.au network Source: AFP
Eight killed in farmers' protest

January 24, 2006

EIGHT people were killed when Bangladesh police opened fire on thousands of rioting farmers, police said.

Earlier police said six died when they opened fire yesterday on the farmers in northern Bangladesh who were demanding a better electricity supply.

"Eight people were killed in Monday's shooting incident," police officer Abul Kashem of Chapai Nawabganj district said. He did not explain why the death toll had risen.

Police said officers fired in self-defence after the farmers besieged a rural electricity board office and torched police vehicles.

Fourteen people were admitted to hospital, with most in serious condition.


"Two patients who were hit in the head are in a very critical condition," Rajshahi Medical College Hospital official Tojammel Haq said.

The rest have bullet wounds to other parts of the body, he said.

The incident at Shibganj, about 250km from Dhaka, follows a similar shooting outside the same office on January 4 when two people were killed.

The farmers are demanding more and cheaper electricity to run irrigation pumps and blame an erratic power supply for poor crop yields.

Bangladesh is plagued by power shortages as rapid growth in industrial and domestic demand continues to outstrip supply.

The Government has said the country has a daily power shortfall of about 500 megawatts, but experts put the figure at more than 1000 megawatts with some areas receiving electricity for only four to six hours a day.

Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest nations but its economy has been growing at more than five per cent a year since the early 1990s.


back PRINT-FRIENDLY VERSION EMAIL THIS STORY
privacy       terms      © The Australian
IN THIS SECTION
Fire crews to work overnight
NSW to compensate fishos
Missing woman spotted interstate
Alien crab invasion threatening UK
Blast kills 12 at army barracks
Murdoch granted leave to appeal
Woman bashed in jewellery shop raid
'Lost papers' meant 38yrs jail
Motorcyclist critical after collision
Bus crash kills eleven
Diver survives 75 hours at sea
Pratt's former mistress defamed: court
Total fire ban declared
Crash pilot 'very good flyer'
Charged over Norfolk murder
School closes after virus outbreak
Dollar sharply weaker
Koran riots rock city
Youths remanded over bashing death
Murder accused arrives
CATCH UP
See the top stories from:
Yesterday
2 days ago
3 days ago
4 days ago
5 days ago
6 days ago