Bombs in two Bangladesh cities kill eight (AP) Updated: 2005-11-29 18:46
Eight people were killed and 65 wounded by suspected suicide bombings in two
Bangladesh cities on Tuesday, apparently the latest in a wave of attacks by
militants fighting to turn the country into a sharia-based Islamic state.
Police said three people, including two of their colleagues, were killed and
15 wounded by blasts at a checkpoint outside a court building in the port city
of Chittagong. They said the third person who died was believed to be the
bomber.
Another blast, in a court complex in Gazipur -- 30 km (20 miles) north of the
capital, Dhaka -- killed five people and wounded nearly 50, police said. Local
hospital sources said the wounded included lawyers.
Lawyers said the militants were apparently trying to scare legal
professionals before courts began trials of hundreds of detained Islamists for
suspected involvement in recent blasts.
"The bombers apparently turned more violent as we set up checkposts trying to
reinforce security at court premises," said Majedul Huq, police commissioner in
Chittagong.
He said the blasts were probably the work of suicide bombers, who had
explosives strapped to their bodies or hidden in bags.
Bangladesh has been hit this year by a wave of bombings blamed on militants
demanding Islamic law in the mainly Muslim democracy.
In an immediate protest, hundreds of lawyers took to the streets of Dhaka,
Chittagong and other cities, calling for government action to prevent further
attacks.
They boycotted courts all over the country on Tuesday.
Witnesses in Chittagong said the blasts tore flesh and limbs from the victims
and sent body parts flying into trees.
At least 30 badly wounded people have been rushed to the Dhaka Medical
College Hospital from Gazipur, doctors said.
"The government is fully determined to crush the militants at all costs and
restore peace in the country," said Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, a senior minister in
charge of the home ministry.
The Islamists killed two judges in the coastal town of Jhalakathi on November
18 and threatened to kill more, including Supreme Court judges.
Bombs exploded in three district courts outside Dhaka last month, killing two
people and wounding more than a dozen, while 500 small bombs went off across the
country on August 17, killing two people and wounding about 100.
Bangladeshi police have acknowledged since those attacks the presence of
home-grown potential suicide bombers.
They say a 2,000-strong "suicide squad" has been formed from members of
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and two other banned groups, Jagrata Muslim Janata
Bangladesh and Harkatul Jihad.
Bangladesh is the world's third-most-populous Muslim
country after Indonesia and Pakistan.
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