September 5, 2003	Friday	Rajab 7, 1424

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DHAKA, Sept 4: A local leader of Bangladesh’s main opposition party was killed and another injured on Thursday in a bomb attack in a violence-hit southwestern Bangladesh city, police said.

Police said Meer Salam, 30, an opposition Awami League party leader of Jhinaigati area in southwestern Khulna district, was killed instantly after unidentified assailants hurled bombs late on Thursday at a rickshaw carrying him.

His companion, identified as local leader Musa, was also injured in the attack, but disappeared shortly thereafter. Police believe he was kidnapped by the attackers, the private UNB news agency said in a report from Khulna.

Police are fingering one of the country’s banned left-wing extremist groups in the attack, for which no one has yet claimed responsibility.

Khulna city, an industrial hub, has been tense since the Aug 25 killing of Manjrul Imam, the president of Awami League’s city chapter and member of the party’s central advisory council. Another lawyer and the rickshaw-puller ferrying him were also killed.

The killing of Meer Salam was claimed by the banned Purbo Banglar Communist Party. Nine people have so far been arrested in his slaying. —AFP