Hasina blames rivals for deaths in blast
Hasina blames rivals for deaths in blast
DHAKA (AFP): Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed on Monday blamed her rivals for a bomb blast at a campaign rally for one of her party's election candidates which killed at least seven people and injured 24 others.
Meanwhile, the caretaker government set up a two-member body to investigate Sunday's explosion and report back within five days, officials said.
The blast ripped through a packed election rally of the Awami League, the former ruling party headed by Sheikh Hasina, in the remote Mollahat area of the southwestern Bagerhat district.
Sheikh Hasina blamed the blast on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -- the Awami League's main rival in the Oct. 1 general election -- and its allies the fundamentalist Jamaat-e- Islami, often referred to as Razakars, and the rightwing Islami Oikkya Jote sometimes called Talibans.
"The Razakars and Talibans led by the BNP have resorted to terrorism across the country to foil the upcoming general elections sensing their sure defeat and were behind the bombing," a party official on Monday quoted her as saying.
"Stop playing with blood," she told her archfoe Khaleda Zia who leads the BNP.
More than 50 people have died in bomb blasts in Bangladesh this year. The Awami League has blamed fundamentalist groups for the attacks, but no one has yet claimed responsibility for them.
Several BNP activists were arrested in connection with the country's worst bombing incident in June this year when an Awami League office was hit, leaving 22 people dead and 100 injured.
In the latest bombing thousands of people, mostly from the minority Hindu community, had gathered to wait for the candidate Sheikh Helal, a cousin of Sheikh Hasina.
The bomb went off seconds after Helal arrived. He escaped unhurt.
More than 100 people have been killed and thousands injured in clashes between political rivals since July when the caretaker government took over from Sheikh Hasina to organize elections.