Seven killed in suicide bombing in Bangladesh
29/11/2005 16:59
At least seven people were killed and about 60 others injured today in two
suicide bomb blasts in southeastern Chittagong and northeastern
Gazipur.
According to local private news agency UNB, a suicide bomber of
Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who was blown up in the
explosion, led the bomb attack near a police check- post at Chittagong court
building at about 9:05 a.m. (0305 GMT).
The desperado was carrying bombs in a
bag. "As police were checking the bag, two bombs blew off killing the bomber and
two policemen," UNB quoted a spot account of one of the deadliest blasts in the
country as saying.
Sixteen others -- 13 police and three passersby -- were
also injured in the big-bang blasts that sent the port city into a
tailspin.
The body of the human bomb was blown up into irrecoverable pieces,
except for his two legs. The two police personnel succumbed to their splinter
wounds at Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
In another explosion
thereafter at about 9:45 a.m. (0345 GMT) at a bar library on the Gazipur
district court premises, four people were killed on the spot and 50 injured,
many seriously.
Local private television channel Ntv said that of the four
dead, one might be the suicide bomber because the body of one of the dead were
wrapped up with wire of bombs.
Angry lawyers of different district bars
boycotted courts in an instant protest against the bomb explosions in Chittagong
and Gazipur courts, UNB reported.
Lawyers in Chittagong, Gazipur, Sylhet and
other districts staged wildcat strike through boycott of courts and brought out
protest march in the court compounds.
On Nov. 14, a JMB suicide squad bombed
a court microbus in southern Jhalakati district, killing two senior assistant
judges.
Earlier, the activists of the banned JMB staged serial bombings
simultaneously at court and government establishments in 63 district
headquarters on Aug.17, leaving two people dead and hundreds wounded.
On Oct.
3, court bombings carried out by the militants in three districts left two
people dead.
For the last few days, the JMB, calling for establishment of
Islamic rule, has been issuing warnings to judges and officials along with death
threats if they fail to execute Islamic law in Bangladesh.
On Sunday, the
militants threatened to blow up American and European missions in Dhaka. The US
government Monday spelt out both long-term and short-term solutions to the
growing peril of terrorism in Bangladesh and expressed interest in considering
new proposals for expanding cooperation in the counter-terrorism
drive.
"There are many causes of terrorism, including ignorance and
extremism, and a long-term solution must incorporate strategies, like providing
good education to traditionally neglected constituencies, for surmounting them,"
the spokesman for the US embassy in Dhaka was quoted by UNB as saying.
In the
short-term, however, "there is no substitute for effective law-enforcement
action. In Bangladesh or elsewhere, there is no better antidote to terrorism
than bringing to justice terrorists and those who sponsor and assist them," he
said.
Xinhua
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