DHAKA, 27 August 2006 — Bangladesh police arrested five suspected Maoist rebels for questioning yesterday, a day after four policemen and a businessman were slain in a bomb attack in a northwest district, an official said.
At least three bombs ripped through a cattle market Friday, killing five people and wounding several others in Naogaon district, 190 kilometers northwest of the capital, Dhaka, police officer Naeem Ahmed said.
The attackers seemed to have targeted policemen posted as guards at the market, in a region where outlawed Maoist guerrillas operate, Ahmed said.
The suspected bombers, apparently shouting leftist slogans, ran from the scene as the blasts sent panicked people running for shelter, the United News of Bangladesh news agency said Friday, citing witness accounts. Maoist rebels in the area have been campaigning for armed revolution to establish communism in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Two Killed in Protest at Bangladesh Coal Project
Two people were killed and about 100 injured when police battled thousands of Bangladeshis trying to storm an office of British coal miner Asia Energy Plc in the country’s northwest yesterday, witnesses said.
They were protesting against an open pit coal mine project Asian Energy is planning at Phulbari in Dinajpur district.
Police fired shots and tear gas shells to disperse the angry crowds, the witnesses said.
