135 killed, over 1,000 in bomb attacks in 6 years (update)

Dhaka, Aug 17 (BDNEWS) – At least 135 people have been killed and over 1,000 injured in grisly bomb and grenade attacks across the country in last six years.

Of those, 12 assaults were made during the present four-party alliance government killing 67 people, including some prominent political figures. But this is for the first time that more than 100 bombs exploded in different places across the country killing two persons and injuring more than 100 on Wednesday. The banned extremist Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahedin claimed the responsibility of the attacks.

The deadliest assault was launched on an Awami League rally on August 21 last year that claimed 23 lives, including the party's Women Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman. Some 300 AL activists, including opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, were injured, some maimed for life, in the attack.

In the last incident of the series that occurred in Habiganj killed six people, including former Finance Minister SAMS Kibria MP, and injured over 100 people.

The houses of the members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamat in Brahmanbaria came under bomb attack on August 12 this year. Eight bombs exploded at a mazar at Kharampur in Akhaura while an Urs was going on there on August 11. Incidents of 11 bombs attacks took place in different villages inhabited by the people of Ahmadiyya sect and NGO offices in Brahmanbaria on June 23.

The spree of bomb-grenade attacks started with the attack on a gathering of Udichi at Jessore on March 6 in 1999. In that attack 10 people were killed and over 150 wounded.

In the same year on October 8, eight people were killed in an attack at an Ahmadiyya Mosque in Khulna.

On January 20 in 2001, five people were killed and 50 injured in an attack on the rally of CPB at Paltan Maidan in Dhaka.

In the same year on April 14, 10 people were killed and 20 injured during the Bangla New Year celebration function organised by Chhayanaut at Ramna Botomul.

Ten people were killed and 26 injured in another attack at a church in Gopalganj on June 3 in the same year.

On June 16, a deadly bomb explosion in Awami League office at Narayanganj killed 21 people and injured over 100 others.

Assailants hurled bombs at a rally in front of the Bagerhat College on September 23 in the same year killing eight people and injuring over 100.

Five days later, three people were killed and over 100 injured in a bomb attack on Roxy Cinema Hall and on a circus stage in Satkhira.

On December 7 in 2002, time-devised bombs ripped through four cinema halls in Mymensingh simultaneously killing three people and injuring over 100.

Attack at a folk-fair at Sakhipur in Tangail on January 17 in 2003, killed eight people and wounded 15 others.

Five people were killed and 50 injured in another bomb attack at the shrine of Shah Jalal (Rh.) in Sylhet on January 12, 2004.

In the same year, British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury escaped an assassination attempt but three people were killed and 70 injured, including the HC, in the same shrine in Sylhet on May 21.

In current year, two people were killed and 35 injured in an attack on a Jatra (folk drama) programme in Bogra on January 16.

On the same day, another attack on a similar Jatra stage in Natore killed two people and wounded 35 others.

BDNEWS/1855 hrs