(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Riot police in Bangladesh fired tear gas Sunday at thousands of Islamist activists protesting constitutional changes that proclaimed the country a secular state.
Police in Bangladesh on Sunday fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse Islamist activists trying to enforce a nationwide strike over the removal of a Muslim phrase in the constitution, and witnesses said around 50 people were injured and some 100 people were detained.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's coalition government recently passed a package of constitutional amendments in which it attempted to appease both Islamists and liberals in the Muslim-majority country. The changes retained Islam as the state religion, but added secularism as a state principle.
The Islamist parties hold no seats in Parliament, but draw support from the country's hundreds of Islamic schools.
The strike, which began two days after the country emerged from a 48-hour stoppage enforced by the opposition, was called to protest a recent amendment to the constitution which dropped the words "absolute faith and trust in Allah".
The Islamists also want to scrap "secularism" as a state principle in the Muslim-majority country.
The strike was called for by 12 Islamist parties.
The strike was spearheaded by the Bangladesh Islami Andolon, one of a handful of small Islamist parties that have no representation in parliament but who back the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, who is trying to force early elections.
The two women have dominated the south Asian country's often volatile politics for two decades and are likely to face off again in the next election due by end of 2013.
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