Dhaka, May 01, 2007: Once again Bangladesh faced serial bomb blast. A series of bombs went off at Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong railway stations Tuesday morning, spreading panic among commuters. A rickshaw puller was injured in the Chittagong blast. All the bombs exploded between 6:45am and 9:30am.
The attack claimed by a group opposed to non-government development agencies, a railway spokesman said. The messages also warned people in Bangladesh against associating with Kadianis, a minority Islamic sect whose members are deemed nonbelievers by many mainstream Muslim groups. Aluminum plates inscribed with militant slogans purported to be from an al-Qaeda network were found at the bombsites. Below the message on the plate was inscribed: Zadid Al Qaeda, Bangladesh.
At Kamalapur Railway Station in the Capital city Dhaka, the explosion occurred in front of ticket counters. Shafiqul Iqbal, station cafeteria manager, said people crowding the station panicked and left the spot immediately after the explosion. In Chittagong, the bomb exploded in front of the new railway station shortly before 9am, leaving a rickshaw puller, Monir Hossain, injured. Kadamtali Railway Station in Sylhet experienced another blast at 7am. No one was injured. No-one claimed responsibility for the explosion either.
Law-enforcement agencies have started checking out suspects and suspicious movements by setting up checkpoints across the city.
An outlawed Islamist group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, carried out a series of nationwide bomb blasts in Bangladesh on August 17, 2005. Six leaders of the group were executed on March 30 for their roles in the blasts.