DHAKA, 10 September 2004 — Bangladeshi security officials detained two Indians yesterday as they tried to enter the country with explosives hidden in their baggage. Bangladesh Rifles border guards seized four pieces of “brick-shaped” explosives from the Indians at the Chhatak border post, 310 kilometers northeast of Dhaka, the officials said.
The border guards also arrested a Bangladeshi believed to be an accomplice of the Indians and took all three for questioning. Officials did not give the names of the men. Bangladesh stepped up security along its porous borders with India and Myanmar after 19 people were killed and 150 wounded in a grenade attack last month on an opposition rally in Dhaka.
Two powerful bombs exploded in southeastern port city of Chittagong and southwestern district of Faridpur yesterday leaving six injured, five of them critically.
A bomb exploded in Chittagong leaving a child critically injured. Witnesses said the bomb went off around 3-30 p.m. injuring the boy, Muhammad Babul.
In Faridpur town, at least five people were injured, four seriously, when a bomb went off at Purba Alipur in the afternoon.
In another development, Dhaka accused Delhi yesterday of unfairly controlling the flow of goods and water between the two countries, and of lying about the presence of Indian insurgents in camps in Bangladesh.
Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said India was depriving his country of its fair share of more than $1 billion in bilateral trade every year.
