Four killed, 25 hurt in Bangladesh clashes

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) - Four people were killed and 25 wounded when dozens of homemade bombs exploded in clashes between farmers and Bangladesh's ruling party members over power supplies, according to police reports.

More than 5,000 farmers marched in the northern town of Shibganj late Thursday where they faced off with supporters of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), an area police chief said.

"We don't know how the clashes began, but both groups hurled dozens of homemade bombs at each other, making the whole area a big battlefield," Golam Kibria said.

Police had fired tear gas to end the melee and six people had been arrested, he added.

"So far we have three dead including two BNP men and one farmer. All the injured people have been sent to different hospitals in the region," Shibganj police sub-inspector Abdul Quddus told AFP by phone.

Tohurul Islam, chairman of the local government council, said a fourth man, a farmer, had also been killed.

Muktarun Nesa, chief nurse at Shibganj Hospital, said three people were in critical condition following the clashes.

Bangladesh has been hit by massive power shortages in recent years as growing industrial and domestic demand outpaces supply. Some rural areas receive electricity for only four to six hours a day.

At least 10 people were killed and hundreds were injured in two incidents in the same town in January when police fired at demonstrating farmers demanding improved and cheap power.

The government has said the country has a power shortfall of about 500 megawatts but experts put the figure at more than three times that.

Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest countries but its economy has been growing at more than five percent a year since the early 1990s.