Spotlightingnews

Netrokona Suicide Bombers Kill 7, Wound 100

Police Officer: "We have reasons to believe that one among the dead was a suicide bomber."

A sad day for the city of Netrokona, 100 miles north of Bangladesh capital Dhaka, as two bombs have killed 5 people and wounded 100 others. The Mymensingh Medical College Hospital received 41 victims, one having already died due to injuries.

Among those hospitalized, an unconscious terrorist has also been brought to the hospital. He was found with explosives strapped to his body. Police officials are to take him under custody the moment his life is no longer in doubt.

The blasts, believed to have been set up by Islamic militants of the Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh organization, took place in front of a cultural organization (Udichi) at about 04-05 GMT. Udichi organizes open-air shows of drama, music and poetry recitals, strongly disapproved of Islamic groups.

Other sources claim that there have been another 2 deaths, of police officers, additional to the above-mentioned 5 fatalities. Khaja Haider Hossain, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh's district cultural unit Udichi, has also been killed in the JMB blasts.

Bangladesh suffered 14 deaths prior to these bombings, after three explosions in two cities (the one at the Gazipur court library and the one in Chittagong were responsible for 13 deaths out of the total 14).

Police officials said that 97 people have been taken into custody for interrogation. Siddiqul Islam, also known as Bangla Bhai, and Sheik Abdurrahman are now the two most-wanted criminals in Bangladesh, as the two are the leaders of JMB (Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh).

Other sources claim that close to 400 people have been questioned by police officers concerning terrorist acts.

"Two of the dead, including a woman, have been identified, but identities of the rest are yet to be ascertained. We have reasons to believe that one among the dead was a suicide bomber, who arrived on the spot on a bicycle just moments before the blast." one police officer said.

The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, seeks to impose the sharia-based Islamic state, through a series of bomb attacks, started August 2005. Bangladesh is the world's third most populous Muslim country after Indonesia and Pakistan.

Some witnesses claim that a group of locals discovered a bomb in front of the Udichi office, called the fire brigade, which rushed to site began defusing the bomb. The bomb blew off leaving three people, including two policemen, injured.

After the initial blast, a crowd gathered at the location, at which time a suicide bomber triggered another explosion that killed five people and injured the others.