Opposition official dies after Bangladeshi bomb attack

09 Aug, 2004

An opposition party official, one of 30 people wounded in a bomb blast in the north-eastern Bangladeshi town of Sylhet, died in hospital early on Sunday, doctors said.
Twenty-five people were taken to hospital after the blast ripped through a car park outside a hotel late on Saturday. Five others were treated in clinics.
A doctor at Sylhet Medical College Hospital named the dead man as Ibrahim Ali, 50, publicity secretary of the opposition Awami League in Sylhet.
He said five other victims were in serious condition.
The bomb exploded two days after one man was killed and 15 wounded in blasts outside two cinemas in the town, 300 km (190 miles) from Dhaka. A third bomb was later defused.
In May, a bomb exploded near a mosque in Sylhet killing three people and wounded more than 50, including the British High Commissioner in Bangladesh.
The Awami League alleged that Saturday's blast had been intended to kill the mayor of Sylhet, Badruddin Ahmed Kamran, who is the local chief of the party headed by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Kamran had gone to the hotel on Saturday evening to meet friends and driven off just minutes before the blast, party officials said.
Authorities stepped up security in Sylhet following the latest blast and ordered an investigation. Police said they had detained a suspect but gave no details.
The Awami League called for a day-long strike in Sylhet on Monday to protest against the attack.

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