 A BOMB blast killed at least four people, including a former finance minister, yesterday at an opposition rally in northeastern Bangladesh, police and witnesses said. The bomb exploded at a rally of the main opposition Awami League at Laskarpur, 250 km from the capital Dhaka. Around 50 others were wounded. A party spokesman said former finance minister Shah Abu Mohammad Shamsul Kibria, 70, was among the dead. Others who died in the blast included a nephew of Kibria and two party workers. After the blast, protesting Awami workers and supporters went on a rampage, attacking and damaging dozens of vehicles and shops, witnesses said. Authorities later deployed extra police and paramilitary troops at Laskarpur. Kibria who had been sitting on the dais at the rally when the bomb went off, died in a Dhaka hospital around midnight. |