Bangladesh cop shot dead in clashes with Islamists

Dhaka: A policeman was killed early Sunday in a gunfight with Islamists in a remote southern village, as violence over war crime convictions of Islamic leaders continued to mount in Bangladesh. Police said a constable was hit by a bullet after around 1,000 supporters of the country's largest Islamic part, Jamaat-e-Islami, attacked police entering a village in Khulna district and tried to detain a Jamaat activist on charges of violence.

"They attacked us with firearms. We also fired from shotguns. Constable Mofizur Rahman was hit by a bullet and died after we took him to a hospital," inspector Mominur Rahman told AFP, adding several policemen were also injured.

The killing raised the death toll to 85, including eight policemen, in clashes with Islamists since a Bangladesh tribunal announced its first war crimes verdict on January 21. Sixty-nine of the dead -- most of them Jamaat members shot by police -- have been killed since Delwar Hossain Sayedee (pic), the vice-president of Jamaat, was sentenced to death on February 28.

Three convictions by the state-appointed tribunal have triggered the worst violence in the impoverished country since independence, hitting economic growth and raising concern over political stability.