DHAKA, Jan 18: At least seven people were killed and 15 others injured on Friday night when two bombs exploded at a rural fair attended by several thousand followers of a saint in Tangail, a northwestern district of Bangladesh.

The explosion occurred at a time a judicial investigation into a similar explosion in four cinemas in Mymensingh district, adjacent to Tangail, is in progress. The serial blasts in the cinemas left 18 people killed and over 100 injured on Dec 7.

However, Friday’s blasts occurred in the remote Dariapur village of Tangail district, 70kms northwest of Dhaka.

“One of the bombs exploded when the followers of the ascetic just crowded around his graveyard,” a police official said. “The second blast occurred outside the graveyard, where several thousand people converged on the occasion.”

More than 10,000 people usually converge on the area during the winter for a three-day annual Urs held in memory of the Muslim ascetic, who was popularly known as Bailla Pagla.

“Of the seven people killed, three died on the spot, while four others succumbed to their injuries on their way to nearby hospitals,” the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), the state-run news agency, said.