DHAKA, Dec 8: Two powerful bomb blasts, including one suicide attack, rocked Bangladesh’s central-north Netrokona and southwestern Mehelpur districts, killing at least eight people and injuring several others on Thursday. Police and witnesses said the suicide attack in Netrokona, the ancestral town of State Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar, killed seven people and wounded 50 others, including members of a law enforcement agency.

They said the bomber blew up himself in a crowd gathered to see a bomb found outside the Shatadal Gosthi office, adjacent to Udichi Shilpi Gosthi, the cultural unit of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, in the morning when members of the cultural organization was in rehearsal for independence day programmes, scheduled to kick off from Friday.

Three people died on the spot while the rest succumbed to their injuries at hospitals or on their way to hospital in Netrakona and Mymensingh.

Home ministry officials said a leaflet was recovered from the spot that claimed the attack was perpetrated by the members of the Jamaatul Mujahideen of Bangladesh.

In Mehelpur, unidentified bombers exploded at least five powerful bombs at Gangni bazaar in the evening killing one goldsmith, Mongol Das.