Bombs in two Bangladesh cities kill six
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-29 14:47

Six 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 police 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 three people and wounded nearly 50, police said. Local hospital sources said the wounded included lawyers.

"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.

An armed Bangladeshi police officer stands guard at the diplomatic zone near the British High Commission in its capital Dhaka November 28, 2005.[Reuters]

Bangladesh has been hit this year by a wave of bombings blamed on Islamist militants demanding Islamic law in the mainly Muslim democracy.

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 tbose attacks the 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.