Police hunting suicide bombers in Bangladesh said they had found five bombs and arrested 20 suspected Islamist militants today following three bomb attacks this week that killed 13 people and wounded nearly 100.
The bombs were found on a street corner in southwestern Khulna city, 350 (220 miles) from the capital Dhaka, they said.
A total of 50 suspected militants, mostly students of religious schools across the country, have been detained over the past four days.
Junior Home Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar told reporters late yesterday that the government was doing all it could to stop a wave of bombings by militants who are fighting to turn the mainly Muslim democracy into a sharia-based Islamic state.
He had earlier said that the bombers were part of a 2,000-strong suicide squad set up by two outlawed militant groups - Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh.
Islamist militants launched their violent campaign in August, detonating nearly 500 bombs within hours near court buildings and government administrative offices across the impoverished South Asian country.
Nearly 20 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded in the wave of bombings, mostly targeting the judiciary, in the past 3 months.
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia has called for political unity to fight the militants and sought to assure Bangladeshis they are safe.
Ms Khaleda told a rally in the western district of Kushtia late yesterday that the militants behind the blasts would be "found, arrested and punished".
But she added: "This would not be possible unless all political parties cooperated with the government and law enforcing agencies."