20 people injured after Bangladesh bomb explosion

At least 20 people have been injured after a bomb explosion in a town in Bangladesh which had been hit by a suicide attack on Tuesday. The powerful bomb went off outside the main administrative office in Gazipur, police say. Four policemen are said to be among those injured. The condition of some of the wounded is serious and they have been moved to the capital Dhaka. Seven people died in Tuesday's attack which was blamed on Islamic militants. The latest attack took place during a nationwide strike called in protest against the earlier bombing. Police say a young man selling tea had hid the bomb in a flask - while being frisked by security men he allegedly threw the bomb at the policemen.

"At least 20 people including four police officers were wounded, some seriously, when the man set off the bomb as we were checking people in front of the gate of the district administrator's office," a local police official, Kamrul Islam, is quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Thursday's strike has been called by the Supreme Court Bar Association after bombings at two court complexes on Tuesday. A powerful bomb exploded inside a library near a courthouse in Gazipur, leaving seven people dead and about 50 others injured - police have described it as the country's first ever suicide bombing. In a second attack on Tuesday, three people, including an alleged bomber, were killed when a series of bombs went off outside a courthouse in the port city of Chittagong.

The government has blamed a banned militant group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, for the explosions and a series of earlier attacks. The police have now launched a manhunt for more potential bombers. They say Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen may have set up a suicide squad of some 2,000 bombers to achieve its aim of establishing Islamic law in Bangladesh, reports BBC news. I.L.