50 Bangladeshi villagers wounded in attack

About 200 people armed with pistols, spears and meat cleavers attacked a village during a five-hour rampage, wounding at least 50 people, including children, police said Saturday.

The attackers vandalised dozens of homes and attacked fleeing women and children in Aguandi, a farming village near the country’s capital, Dhaka on Friday. The attackers also looted grains in stores, said Saiful Islam, the area’s police chief.

The villagers said that the attackers were supporters of the new Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, from a neighbouring village.

Islam said the attackers targeted the village because most of its 50 families supported former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party in the October 1 parliamentary elections.

A spokesman for BNP, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied the villagers’ allegations, saying that police were investigating the incident. There has been no formal statement from BNP.

Police have not made any arrests so far.

Most of the residents have fled the village, 32 kilometres (20 miles) east of Dhaka.