Bomb blasts shake two Bangladesh cities

A series of bombs exploded in two Bangladesh cities on Tuesday, killing at least six people, including two alleged bombers and two policemen, and injuring at least 66, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of attacks by militant Muslims intent on imposing harsh Islamic law in the country, according to officials.

The explosions in the main port city of Chittagong and in Gaizipur town, just outside the capital Dhaka, happened at about the same time - just before 0300 GMT - and appeared to target courthouses.

Three bombs exploded just outside the Chittagong courthouse, killing the alleged suicide bomber and fatally injuring two police, police official Mosharraf Hossain told.

Sixteen people - including the second suspected suicide bomber - were injured, some critically, in the Chittagong blasts, said Habibur Rahman, a doctor at state-run Chittagong Medical College Hospital, 216 kilometers southeast of Dhaka.

Hossain said the first explosion occurred when police scuffled with the suspected bomber, who they had stopped at the gate of the courthouse. The second alleged bomber then detonated two more bombs as he tried to escape, he said.

Another three people, including an alleged bomber, were killed in Gazipur town, where a powerful bomb went off inside the Bar Library near a courthouse.

The blast at Gazipur, 32 kilometers (20 miles) north of capital Dhaka, injured at least 50 people, including lawyers.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but police investigators pointed to outlawed Islamic militant group Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, blamed for similar attacks this year, the AP reports.

V.Y.