BANGLADESH

Police in Bangladesh said Saturday they had arrested two school teachers on suspicion of staging a drama containing blasphemous remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.

The school's Muslim headmaster and a female Hindu teacher were detained on Friday as thousands protested the play following weekly prayers at Kaliganj, 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of the capital Dhaka, police chief Farid Uddin said.

"The drama contained blasphemous remarks about the Prophet, which angered Muslim villagers," the local police official told AFP,

He said the teachers had been accused of "hurting religious sentiment" for helping organise the drama at their school.

At least 3,000 demonstrators barricaded a key road and held noisy protests in front of the school and in other towns in the district on Friday.

Violence also erupted on Saturday as up to 7,000 Muslims shouted slogans and set ablaze the house of the drama's director, who has fled the remote area, another senior police official Zaiadul Haq told AFP.

"The situation is still volatile," he said.

Some 90 percent of Bangladesh's 150 million people are Muslim and Islam is country's state religion.

The country's secular government has dealt harshly with any event or publications seen as potentially upsetting religious feelings out of concern they could trigger protests by ultra-conservative Islamist outfits.

Last week, a Bangladesh court ordered authorities to shut down five Facebook pages and a website for displaying allegedly blasphemous content.