Bangladesh holds 8 after bombing
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-10 10:46

Police detained eight suspects Friday after a suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded Bangladesh street, killing himself and seven others in an attack blamed on extremists seeking an Islamic state.

The suspects were held for questioning in this northern town, site of Thursday's bombing, police officials said on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Among the wounded was another bomber who police said failed to detonate his explosives. The suspected second bomber was hospitalized under police guard Friday, the police said.

A policeman detains two suspected militants during Friday prayers at the National Mosque Baitul Mukarram in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Dec. 9, 2005.[AP]

About 1,000 mourners rallied in Netrokona on Friday, waving black flags in mourning and carrying banners that read, "Arrest the bombers, punish the bombers."

Thousands of Muslims poured into Dhaka's streets after Friday's weekly prayers to condemn the bombing.

"Islam does not allow such a heinous crime against humanity," Moulana Obaidul Huq, imam of the country's main mosque in Dhaka, told them. "We must fight against such an anti-Islamic campaign to protect our religion of peace."

Also Friday, police discovered and defused a bomb outside a college in Sirajganj, 65 miles northwest of Dhaka, the United News of Bangladesh news agency reported.

Thursday's blast occurred as hundreds of people had gathered on a narrow street after police safely detonated another bomb found in a building.

The explosion spewed shrapnel, killing the bomber and six others and injuring dozens, including another bomber who police said failed to detonate his explosives.

A seventh victim, a 22-year-old woman who was being treated at a government hospital, died of her injuries Friday, said a nurse with the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to reporters.

Police blamed the attack on Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned Islamic group believed to be behind a wave of blasts that have killed 21 people in the past two weeks.

A police officer at the scene, Ali Hossain Faquir, said a handwritten leaflet warning police to follow Islamic law and stop protecting "manmade" laws was found near the site, about 80 miles north of the capital, Dhaka.

The previous attacks largely targeted government offices and courts, and Home Ministry spokesman Khandaker Monirul Alam told reporters in Dhaka that the attackers have "adopted a new tactic, and targeted innocent people."