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500 Muslims rally in Bangladesh capital
Muslims rallied in the Bangladeshi capital to protest Israel's assaults on Lebanon, denouncing the Jewish state.
About 500 Muslims rallied in the Bangladeshi capital on Friday to protest Israel's assaults on Lebanon, denouncing the Jewish state and burning its flag, police said.
Shouting anti-Israel slogans and carrying banners and placards, activists from about half a dozen hard-line Islamic groups marched through streets in front of the Dhaka's main Baitul Mokarram mosque, Dhaka Metropolitan police official Fawzia Khanam said.
No violence was reported immediately, she said. Dozens of supporters of hard-line Khatme Nubuwat Movement group, poured into the streets after Friday's weekly prayer and later burned an Israeli flag.
A group of children also joined the protest rally, carrying placards, reading "No war, stop blood".
Bangladesh earlier condemned Israel's attacks on Lebanon. On Friday, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia addressed letters to the leaders of the five permanent member countries of the UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, calling for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Lebanon, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.
The letters were written following an August 3 executive committee meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia, the agency said.
Bangladesh, the world's third-largest Muslim-majority nation, supports the establishment of independent Palestinian state. It has no diplomatic or business relations with Israel.
