The number of victims of protests in Bangladesh - against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - has risen to 14 dead and more than 100 wounded, after 3 days of violent confrontations between police and protesters.
Eyewitnesses reported that the police used tear gas and live bullets to disperse the demonstrators who blocked the road between the capital and Chattogram.
Hundreds of religious school students and activists of the (apolitical) group, the Preservation of Islam, demonstrated in Chittagong, the coastal Brahmanbaria region, to protest Modi's visit, and waved banners demanding justice for the Muslim minority in India.
The group’s secretary general, Aziz al-Haq Islamabad, said that the Bengali government has become an example of the state’s persecution against its citizens and the killing of its people, saying that it is "unacceptable and unexpected."
"This must be changed ... We never expect that in a democracy, people will be killed by the security forces for organizing protests," Abadi added.
Police use tear gas canisters to disperse protesters in the (French) capital of Bengal
On Saturday, Modi concluded his two-day visit to Dhaka, in light of the protests that spread across Bangladesh, including the capital.
The visit of the Indian Prime Minister came on the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan, and the 101st anniversary of the birth of the founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was the leader of the struggle that led to independence.
Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan in 1971 after a bloody war that lasted about 9 months, and ended with the death of hundreds of thousands after India intervened in favor of the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan.