Four arrested after cinema blasts; toll up

Four people were arrested yesterday on suspicion of being involved in Saturday's bomb blasts in Mymensingh, 110 km north of Dhaka.

Saber Hossain Chowdhury, political secretary of opposition leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed, columnists Muntasir Mamun and Shahriar Kabir, and Awami League leader, Shafi Ahmed, were picked up in a pre-dawn swoop on their houses in Dhaka, within hours of the bomb blasts at five cinema halls that have so far left 21 people dead.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia visited Mymensingh yesterday with Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury. He later told reporters in Dhaka that the blasts were "pre-planned sabotage and conspiracy" against the nation.

Khaleda, who said she was "saddened" by Saturday night's blasts, met injured victims and talked to families of the dead.

She ordered security agencies to identify those responsible and bring them to justice, Chowdhury said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

Chowdhury categorically denied reports which had quoted him as saying that the Al Qaida terrorist network was behind the attacks.

Saber Chowdhury, who was a deputy minister in Hasina's government, was also arrested by the army in October and released recently after a month's detention.

Columnist Shahriar Kabir was arrested after the present government came to power last year while returning from Calcutta on the charge of anti-state activities.

Muntasir Mamun, also a teacher of Dhaka University, is a critic of the present government.
Shafi Ahmed, a former student leader, now belongs to the Awami League.

Meanwhile, troops have been patrolling Mymensingh town since the blasts. "Army troops are patrolling the town and checking every passing vehicle," police officer Dulal Akhand said.

Blasts at five Mymensingh cinemas, packed with families celebrating Eid Al Fitr, killed 21 people and wounded about 300.

Police said 57 people, many in critical condition, were being treated in hospitals. The cinemas were packed with nearly 2,000 men, women and children when the bombs went off, police said.
Doctors said many of the wounded had lost their limbs.

Hundreds of people thronged the town hospital morgue to identify victims.

"Give me my son back..." cried Babul Akhtar, a 35-year-old tea vendor clutching the body of his teenage son Hazrat Ali outside the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital as scores like him struggled to glimpse the bodies lined up for identification.

Many of the dead and injured were hit by falling bricks and steel, witnesses said.

"It was a terrible scene. Doctors were overwhelmed with so many injured," said Muzahed Ahmed, a university teacher who took part in the rescue work.

"I heard a big bang and then saw many people running for shelter," said Jahangir Alam, a journalist who was witnessed one blast. "There were bodies lying in blood and many injured crying for help," he said.

It was the worst such incident since Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance took power in October last year.

The explosions came amid a controversial military-led campaign ordered by Khaleda on October 17 to crack down on rampant crime, which the government blames partly on the opposition's efforts to discredit her ruling alliance.

A spokesman for main opposition leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed said she condemned the bombings and in a statement offered her condolences to the bereaved families.

Similar bombings of a theatre and a circus show killed six people and wounded 200 in September in the southwest.