Bomb kills one, wounds 29 in fresh attack on Bangladesh town Gazipur

Bangladeshi police detained more than a dozen suspects after an alleged Islamic militant detonated a bomb outside a government building, killing one person and wounding at least 29 others, authorities said.

The bomb, apparently hidden in a tea flask, exploded Thursday outside a sprawling complex that houses the chief government administrator's office and a courthouse in Gazipur town, north of the Bangladeshi capital, just days after suspected Islamic suicide bombers killed seven people in the same place.

Islamic militants have repeatedly targeted lawyers and judges in Bangladesh, accusing them of promoting secular laws instead of Islamic Sharia rule. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts, but police said they discovered leaflets of Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned Islamic group, on the suspected bomber, who was wounded and captured.

Police detained at least 17 suspects from six districts following Thursday's blast. Emergency workers in Gazipur rushed 16 of the most seriously injured to a hospital in the capital, Dhaka, where one person died of shrapnel injuries, said Mozammel Haq, a doctor at the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

The militant was disguised as a tea vendor near a line of people waiting to enter the government buildings, said Gazipur police chief Atiqul Islam. Security officers challenged him and he refused to undergo a search. When officers threatened to shoot him, he threw a tea flask containing the bomb to the ground, and it exploded, Islam said.

The bomber gave his name as Abdur Razzak, 25, said Abdul Halim Mollah, a doctor at Gazipur Sadar Hospital who treated him. One of the injured, pedal rickshaw driver Zahurul Islam, was waiting for a passenger when the blast knocked him to the ground.

The attack came as a lawyers' group and 14 opposition parties staged a protest strike demanding improved security after Tuesday's bombings _ which killed seven people in Gazipur and four people in Chittagong, including two suspected bombers. More than 50 suspects were arrested after Tuesday's attacks, police said.

Bangladesh has been hit by a string of bombings this year _ most blamed on Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a group that seeks to establish harsh Islamic rule in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, which is governed by secular laws, the AP reports.

Police say the group has trained hundreds of its members as suicide bombers, including some who received instruction in Afghanistan. A.M.