Reinforcements from the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), the Rajshahi police line and three neighbouring police stations were involved in the clashes, which ensued after police foiled a JMJB attempt to organise a procession in protest against the lynching of three JMJB men on Saturday night.

Police rounded up 64 JMJB cadres for clashing with police, but did not detain any of the leaders who led the attacks.

Tear gas shells, rubber bullets and brickbats were used during the clashes, police said.

A curfew-like situation now prevails at Bagmara following the incident, as police and Rab forces patrol the region and the streets remain deserted.

The injured policemen include Golam Kibria, officer in charge of the Bagmara police station, Sub Inspector (SI) Salauddin, SI Mahbub Hossain, SI Sanaullah, SI Monirul, ASI Zahangir, Havildar Poritosh and constable Ershadul.

Since being barred for the first time by law enforcement agencies, JMJB men have started gathering arms and recruiting armed cadres from different parts of the country, sources said.

The sources last evening witnessed some JMJB leaders vowing to

retaliate for the lynching and to battle against law enforcement

agencies if the situation demands.

"I heard one of our leaders calling upon his senior to come to Bagmara immediately with heavy arms for the retaliation. He vowed to fight with police and the Rab," said a source inside the JMJB.

Ordered by their leaders, JMJB cadres from different upazilas and even from Naogaon and Natore started gathering in the morning at Sikdari, Hamirkutsa, Talgharia, Goalkandi, Taherpur, Jhikra and Jhargram.

By noon, with their number reaching several thousands, they gathered at the Bhabaniganj Boys' High School field and chanted slogans against the lynching of their three fellows.

'We'll not let the blood of the martyrs go unpunished.' 'The administration should answer for killing our people.' 'Blood for blood,' were the slogans used by the agitating JMJB men, sources said.

Police intercepted them using batons as they brought out the procession at the school gate. JMJB men retaliated with bricks and stones.

"We asked them not to move for the criminals, but they did not heed us," said OC Kibria, speaking by cell phone. He added that the clashes lasted for half an hour.

He said police lobbed three tear gas shells, several rubber bullets and blank shots to disperse the mob.

In the afternoon, locals said, Rab and police indiscriminately forced bearded youths into the town's saloons, forcing them to shave.

SI Mahbub Hossain of Bagmara PS filed a case after the clashes, accusing the JMJB cadres of attacking police and interrupting government work.

Some local villagers, meanwhile, criticised the police for their actions. "Police should take a lesson from the incident that terrorism cannot be eliminated through terrorism," said an area dweller, adding that the police have backed the JMJB since its founding on March 31, 2004.

"Yesterday's incident is nothing different from rearing a snake with milk and bananas", commented pro-liberation doctors' association president Dr Sayed Safiqul Alam.

Yesterday's clashes resulted from an earlier incident on Saturday night, when a mob lynched three bearded men of the fugitive terrorist Bangla Bhai-led Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh at the Bagmara upazila.

The lynching ensued immediately after a militant group bombed to death a villager and injured 30 others while running away from a foiled attempt on the life of Sreepur union council chairman Mokbul Hossain Mridha, who belongs to the Awami League (AL).

Local AL members called a half-day hartal in the Taherpur municipality on Tuesday and a protest meeting on Wednesday for attacks on AL leaders.

Mokbul Mridha, 48 and vice president of Sreepur union AL, was attacked at approximately 8.30pm on Saturday while walking home with local AL advisor Yusuf Ali Pramanik.

As many as 11 masked men waylaid them at Kuthibari. "Seven of the attackers swooped down on us and hit Mridha with an iron rod on his head," said Yusuf talking to The Daily Star.

They then fired three shots, one hitting Mridha in the hip as he was jumping into a roadside ditch, said Yusuf. Mridha was later admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH).

The attackers, meanwhile, started to flee as villagers began chasing them. Cornered at Khoira beel, the attackers then hurled a bomb and killed Mahbub Hossain Dewan, 35, the AL publicity secretary at ward no. 9 of Taherpur municipality.

Some 30 persons were also injured in the bomb attack. Nine of them were admitted to RMCH with splinter wounds to their bodies, including their heads, faces, and eyes.

Infuriated at the bomb attack, villagers jumped in the beel and caught three of the attackers, beating them to death on the spot. Three others escaped.

The incident was the first time that villagers turned out against JMJB since the militant band started operations on March 31 of last year, unleashing a violent campaign in which as many as 15 have been killed and several hundred others tortured, allegedly with police support on the plea of eliminating outlaws.

The lynched persons were identified as Abdur Rahman, a 20-year-old Alim (intermediate) student of Taherpur Madrassah; Ibrahim Hossain, an 18-year-old SSC examinee from Bhabaniganj High School; and Abdul Baki Murad, 22, a man from Pallapara, Adamdighi in Bogra, Bangla Bhai's home.

As he refused to quit AL Cadres of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) attempted on the life of the Sripur Union Parishad chairman for his refusal to quit the Awami League, sources close to him said last night.