Bombs rattle Bangladeshi cities

“This is a very unexpected event in many respects,” said Philip Tanner, a project co-ordinator for CARE Canada in Dhaka…“We have heard many people raise the issue of security in Bangladesh … There are high incidences of petty theft and violence but we’ve seen an improvement in the past year. And I think something of this large scale, a co-ordinated attack, took us completely by surprise.”

DHAKA, Bangladesh (CP) – More than 100 small bombs shook Bangladesh on Wednesday as a series of near-simultaneous attacks killed two people, injured at least 125 and sparked widespread panic, police and news reports said.

Police arrested about 50 people in connection with the bombings, which hit nearly every major city and town across the country, the state-run news agency, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, reported.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who left for China before the blasts, called the attacks a “cowardly, conspiratorial and well-planned terrorist act.”

The attackers “want to realize their heinous designs by spreading panic among the people and creating instability,” the United News of Bangladesh quoted Zia as saying from Beijing.

The homemade bombs – many packed only with sawdust and planted outside government offices or courthouses – were apparently intended to cause limited damage, authorities said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility but leaflets from a banned Islamic group, the Jumatul Mujahedin, were found at the scene of all the explosions, officials said. The group wants to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation governed by secular laws.

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha said at least 125 people were injured. Most of those people were believed to have minor burns, though…

Posted by MarchHare