BANGLADESH

Police clashed with BNP activists in parts of the capital, Dhaka, as the opposition-sponsored nationwide general strike began on Monday for a second day on Monday amid detention and vandalism.

Police dispersed a procession in front of the BNP headquarters when the opposition activists tried to march through the street there in the beginning hour of the day's shutdown. Police detained at least three opposition activists including former deputy health minister Sirajul Haque from there, said Paltan Police Station chief Shahidul Haque.

Clashes took place in Naya Paltan, Mohakhali and Mirpur.

Like previous days, police kept the BNP headquarters cordoned off.

In the morning, police searched the house of BNP's acting secretary-general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in the city's Uttara residential area, his wife said.

Rahat Ara Begum said her husband was not home at the time.

Meanwhile, police filed cases charging Fakhrul and few other party functionaries with role in Sunday's Secretariat blasts.

At least a dozen bombs exploded in Dhaka on Sunday during the daylong shutdown. Two of them were thrown at the Bangladesh Secretariat.

The BNP has set a new deadline of Monday to find M Ilias Ali, an organising secretary and the chief of Sylhet district unit of the party.