Blasts at Bangla courts kill two

Simultaneous bomb explosions rocked three Bangladesh towns on Monday, killing at least two people and wounding 10, less than two months afte...

Simultaneous bomb explosions rocked three Bangladesh towns on Monday, killing at least two people and wounding 10, less than two months after hundreds of blasts went off across the country on a single day.

Police said the bombs rocked courtrooms8212;one in the town of Chandpur, 170 km southeast of the capital, Dhaka, another in nearby Laxmipur town and one or two more in Chittagong.

Local reporters said suspects detained following the blasts admitted they were members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, a banned Islamic militant group blamed for August8217;s attacks.

Two people were killed and 100 were wounded in the 500 or so bomb blasts across the country on August 17. Like Monday8217;s attacks, many were just outside or on the premises of key buildings in Dhaka and other cities, mostly courts and government offices.

Police superintendent B.M. Harunur Rashid said by telephone that one man died in the attack on the courthouse in Chandpur, three people8212;including a lawyer8212;were wounded, and two people suspected of carrying the bomb were detained. One man was killed and six were wounded in Laxmipur, and one man was hurt in Chittagong.

Police said they had also recovered a live bomb outside a school in the northern town of Mymensingh, not far from the district magistrate8217;s court.

Monday8217;s attacks came a day after police filed criminal charges against 28 Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen activists in a court in northwestern Jaipurhat district.

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They were among 400 or so suspects detained following the August bombings, police said on Monday.

The attacks also followed Saturday8217;s arrest of Mufti Abdul Hannan, accused of leading the Bangladesh chapter of the Islamist militant group Harkatul Jihad and described by police as among the 8220;top terrorists8221; they had been seeking for years.

The arrests appears to be the first big breakthrough in a crackdown on Islamic militancy in Bangladesh. Analysts said there was little doubt that Monday8217;s bomb attacks were linked to the August blasts. 8212;Reuters