Bangladesh movie hall blasts: 20 dead, Al Qaeda role feared

A series of near-simultaneous bomb blasts at four Bangladesh cinema halls, packed with families celebrating the end of Ramzan, killed 20 peo...

A series of near-simultaneous bomb blasts at four Bangladesh cinema halls, packed with families celebrating the end of Ramzan, killed 20 people and wounded nearly 300 today.

According to the police, the bombs went off at movie theatres in and around the normally quiet tourist town of Mymenshingh, 150 km north of the capital, at 6 pm.

The theatres together housed nearly 2,000 men, women and children, all celebrating the three-day Id-ul-Fitr holiday, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramzan, which began on Thursday.

While the police said nobody had claimed responsibility for the blasts, Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury stated that the attacks could be the work of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network or some other terror group. ‘‘Police suspect the Al Qaeda or any other terror groups are behind the bomb blasts.’’ said Chowdhury, who has ordered a nationwide security alert. However, he added that political opponents may also have masterminded the explosions in a bid to destabilise the government.

‘‘We are trying to find out who are actually involved in these cruel acts,’’ he said. ‘‘The government has ordered a security alert all over the country to prevent any such attempts of terror acts.’’ So far, five suspects have been arrested from around the bombed cinema halls.

Incidentally, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha had recently said in Parliament that Pakistan’s ISI and the Al Qaeda were using Bangladesh as a safe haven. Dhaka had reacted strongly, asking Delhi to show the evidence. Last month, Bangladesh said it was investigating if there were 99 camps belonging to Indian rebel groups on its soil. ‘‘A list of 99 camps, as alleged by Indian authorities, is being investigated and the outcome would be conveyed to India,’’ Foreign Secretary Shamsher M. Chowdhury had said.