Seven people were killed when bombs or grenades exploded as former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed ended her address to a public meeting outside her headquarters today.
Hospital officials said at least 50 were wounded in the blasts. A police spokesman said at least 10 policemen were injured.
Sheikh Hasina was unhurt.
A cameraman at the scene said many of the injured were women activists. He said he heard several blasts. Two grenades lay unexploded at the site of the meeting, witnesses said.
Wounded women activists were lying on the ground, many in blood-soaked saris. Hundreds of shoes littered the area. TV footage showed a badly bleeding child being carried to hospital.
Officials of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party of Begum Khaleda Zia, which defeated the Awami League in elections in October 2001, were not immediately available for comment.
There has been a spate of bomb blasts in Bangladesh in recent months including one earlier this month which killed an Awami League leader in the northeastern town of Sylhet.
In May, a bomb exploded at a mosque near the shrine of a Muslim saint in Sylhet, killing three people and wounding 50, including British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury.
At least 20 people have died in bomb blasts and sporadic political violence this year.