Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at hundreds of opposition activists in Bangladesh on Sunday as a nationwide strike over the disappearance of a senior politician brought daily life to a halt.
More than a dozen people were injured, four of them seriously, police said, as violence erupted in Sylhet, home to opposition leader Ilias Ali who has been missing for five days.
Rights groups have blamed security agencies for the disappearance of dozens of opposition activists over the past two years, alleging the victims have been abducted on government orders. Ali, a regional head of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, is the highest profile opposition politician to have “disappeared” since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took power in January 2009.
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