December 11, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 6, 1423

DHAKA, Dec 10: The opposing political camps in Bangladesh have adopted a confrontational course following the explosions in four movie theatres in Mymensingh on Saturday, that claimed 17 lives and injured about 300.

Both political camps of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and opposition Awami League (AL), have blamed each other for the explosions and staged demonstrations against each other in Dhaka on Monday. They have also announced fresh programmes against each other.

After the bomb attacks, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia hinted that the government suspected the attacks were the work of the opposition Awami League.

“Those who were running an anti-Bangladesh smear campaign at home and abroad and were conspiring to tarnish the country’s image seemed to have links with such terrorist incident,” Prime Minister Khaleda Zia told journalists on Sunday.

On the other hand, Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, directly blamed the ruling coalition for the explosions in the movie theatres.

“It appears that an identified fanatic terrorist group within the alliance is behind the heinous bomb blasts,” said Hasina, in a statement in Dhaka on Sunday.

In another development, seven live bombs were recovered from the Dhaka High Court premises this morning. On Sunday a powerful bomb was recovered from a cinema in the country’s northern district of Gaibandha.