Security forces detained dozens of suspects in their hunt for Islamic militants who set off hundreds of crude bombs across Bangladesh, killing two people and injuring more than 100.
Roughly 200 homemade bombs exploded on the streets, at courts and near key government buildings in at least 60 cities and towns across the Islamic nation shortly after Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia left Dhaka yesterday on a five-day visit to China.
Ms Khaleda is cutting short her visit and is likely to return on tomorrow night, a senior government official said today.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the blasts, which caused little damage and appeared to be aimed at spreading panic. But copies of a leaflet found at the bomb sites carried a call by a banned Islamic group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, for Islamic rule in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, police in eastern India said today they were questioning two suspected Bangladeshi nationals arrested in connection with distributing leaflets and raising money for an organisation which had al Qaeda as part of its name.
They were being distributed in some Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods in the city of Kolkata, previously known as Calcutta, and which is across the border from Bangladesh. The arrests were not immediately linked to the bombings in Bangladesh, however.