One dead, several injured, in Bangladesh bomb blasts

Bombs exploded at court buildings in three towns in Bangladesh today, killing one person and wounding several others.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, but a government minister said several people had already been arrested.

“I’ve just heard that bombs went off at three places,” said junior interior minister Lutfozzaman Babar in Dhaka. “I’ve no details about the blasts.”

Babar said several suspects had been arrested.

A 60-year-old man was killed and a lawyer was seriously injured when two bombs went off at a court building in Chandpur town, 40 miles east of the capital, Dhaka, a Chandpur police officer said.

Almost simultaneously, two bombs exploded at a courthouse in neighbouring Laxmipur town and injured at least seven people, United News of Bangladesh reported.

Two more bombs also went off in a court building in Chittagong, the country’s second-largest city, 135 miles south-east of Dhaka, TV station ATN Bangla reported.

One of the bombs in Laxmipur exploded inside a courtroom, leaving a judge with minor injuries, the UNB news report said.

No motive for the attacks was immediately apparent.

On August 17, more than 430 small home-made bombs went off across Bangladesh in near-simultaneous attacks, killing two people and injuring at least 125. Some of the blasts were in Chittagong, Chandpur and Laxmipur.

No one claimed responsibility for those explosions, but leaflets from the banned Islami group Jumatul Mujahideen were found at all the blast sites, authorities said.

The group has been campaigning to establish strict Islamic rule in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country governed by secular laws.

Authorities arrested and questioned more than 400 suspects after the August blasts, but no one has been formally charged.