Al-Qa'ida suspect in Ramadan blasts

The end of Ramadan was marred by a series of bomb blasts in four cinemas that claimed 15 lives and injured up to 300 people in Bangladesh last night.

The cinemas in and around the normally quiet tourist town of Mymenshingh, 95 miles north of the capital, Dhaka, were packed with nearly 2,000 men, women and children celebrating the Eid al-Fitr festival that concludes Ramadan, police said.

Suspicion immediately fell on al-Qa'ida, with the Home Minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, ordering a national security alert. "Police suspect al-Qa'ida or other terror groups are behind the bomb blasts," he said.

Mr Chowdhury said political opponents also might have been behind the explosions in a bid to try to destabilise the government.

"We are trying to find out who is actually involved in these cruel acts," he said. "The government has ordered a security alert all over the country to prevent any such attempts of terror acts."

Police sources said they were not yet sure whether the bomb had been planted earlier or was detonated by suicide bombers.

They added that no one had yet claimed responsibility and no foreigners were among the dead. "We have now recovered 14 bodies from the cinemas. The number of deaths may rise," police inspector Abu Taleb said.

Police arrested five people in the area of the cinemas as troops cordoned off the debris.

Bombs wounded 30 people at a circus in southwestern Satkhira in September. At least 22 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a bombing at a local office of the then-ruling Awami League in June 2001.