350 bombs rock across Bangladesh, 2 killed
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-08-18 05:48

"It's an organized attack," Lufuzzaman Babar, a top official in the Home Ministry, told local TV station ATN Bangla. "It's not a simple incident."

The leaflets found near a number of blast sites called for the imposition of Islamic law.

"There should not be any other laws except Allah's in a Muslim country. But it's a pity that in Bangladesh, where about 90 per cent are Muslims, Allah's rules are not implemented," said the leaflets, which were written in Bengali and Arabic.

Earlier this year, the government outlawed Jumatul Mujahedin and another Islamic group, Jagrata Muslim Janata, for their alleged involvement in a spate killings, robberies and bomb attacks in Bangladesh in recent years.

The groups have denied involvement in the violence, but have vowed to work to establish Islamic rule in the nation of 140 million people.

In Dhaka, police were deployed to major intersections after the explosions, and were checking vehicles and pedestrians for bombs.

Police who examined a number of unexploded bombs said they contained explosives packed in small containers and wrapped in tape, paper or sawdust - instead of the nails or shrapnel that more deadly bombs contain. They were rigged with small battery-powered timers, police said.

"They were meant to create sound and panic rather than serious injury," a police official told ATN Bangla.

The blasts took place mainly at government offices, press clubs, courts, bus and train stations and markets, police and Bangladeshi media reported.

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