A powerful bomb ripped through a crowded street in northern Bangladesh yesterday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens in an attack police said may have been carried out by a suicide bomber on a bicycle.
The blast in the town of Netrokona occurred about an hour after authorities defused another bomb in the same area, said police officials.
Authorities initially said one person was killed in the blast, but the police officials later confirmed that four people, including the bomber, were killed at the scene and two victims died of their injuries on the way to hospitals.
The police officials said they believe the blast may have been detonated by a suicide bomber who was riding through the crowd on a bicycle. At least 45 people, including nine police, were injured, they said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but a series of explosions in two other Bangladesh towns nearly two weeks ago have been blamed on militants who seek to establish Islamic rule in Bangladesh, a largely Muslim country governed by secular laws.
Police detained and questioned more than 200 suspects after the recent blasts, which killed a total of 14 people, but have so far not officially charged any suspects.
Witnesses to yesterday's blast described a scene of bloodied victims and screaming survivors.
"It was a terrible sight. People were screaming in pain all around," said Shymolendu Pal, a journalist with Dhaka's Ittefaq newspaper.
He and several other journalists had gathered in the area before the blast to report on the other bomb police said they had earlier defused.
Pal and other witnesses reported seeing many injured being taken to hospitals with legs or hands torn apart, raising fears the death toll in the blast could rise.
Among the dead was an activist whose organization, Udichi Shilpi Ghosti, or the Rising Sun Artists Group, has recently held several anti-militant concerts, police said.
The woman, who was not identified, was traveling in a motor rickshaw when the bomb exploded nearby, police said, adding that she was not believed to have been a specific target.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of