Author:
Publication: BBC News
Date: May 21, 2004
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3735103.stm
The top British diplomat in Bangladesh
has been wounded in a bomb attack in the north-eastern town of Sylhet,
police have said.
Two people died and at least 25
were hurt, including UK high commissioner Anwar Choudhury, in the attack
on a Muslim shrine, police and doctors said.
Mr Choudhury was treated for leg
injuries but is not seriously hurt.
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
said he was "deeply shocked" by the bombing. It is unclear who carried
out the attack.
Mr Choudhury told the AFP news agency
from hospital in Sylhet: "The bomb hit my stomach after it was hurled,
but did not explode [then].
"It fell on the ground near the
foot of the district chief and then exploded with a big bang," he said.
The chief government administrator
of the district was among the injured, along with Mr Choudhury's bodyguard.
Britain's Foreign Office said it
could not rule out that this was an assassination attempt on Mr Choudhury.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Begum
Khaleda Zia denounced the bombing and sent her sympathies to the high commissioner
and the other victims.
A blast at the same shrine, of Muslim
saint Hazrat Shahjalal, in January this year killed three people.
The BBC's Roland Buerk in Dhaka
says the latest explosion occurred as Mr Choudhury walked out of a mosque
at the shrine after Friday prayers.
Police say they suspect a bomb was
thrown by somebody in the crowd.
Sympathies
A reporter at the Sylhet Medical
College Hospital told the Reuters news agency: "This is a hell of a scene
with dozens of injured lying in the emergency ward and in the corridors."
The hospital was treating about
50 people, said doctor Abdus Salam.
Shahriar Hossain Chowdhury, a senior
doctor treating Mr Choudhury, told AFP the envoy was not seriously injured.
"He is absolutely in good health
and suffered soft tissue injuries to his right leg."
The diplomat was later flown back
to Dhaka for further treatment.
The Bangladeshi-born Mr Choudhury
only took up his post in the country last week.
His family is originally from the
Sylhet region and his visit to the mosque was widely publicised.
Mr Straw sent his sympathies to
the victims of the attack.
"Details of exactly what happened
and the nature of the injuries are not clear. We are grateful for the support
we are receiving from the Bangladeshi authorities," he said.
In the January attack, three people
were killed by an explosion at the shrine during a religious gathering.
No one has been arrested for that
bombing, but Islamic extremists have been widely blamed.
