Bangladesh arrested dozens of opposition activists after bombs ripped through cinemas in a northern town, killing 17 people as families celebrated the end of the Muslim fasting month.
A senior government minister said earlier the al Qaeda network might be responsible for yesterday's blasts in Mymenshingh town, north of the capital Dhaka, but added that opposition radicals were also on the list of suspects.
The four cinemas were packed with nearly 2,000 men, women and children watching Bangla action movies when the bombs exploded.
The three-day Eid al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, is one of the most important celebrations of the year in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Seventeen people were killed in the blasts and about 300 were injured. Police said 21 people, including some students, had been arrested in Mymenshingh and were being interrogated.
In the capital Dhaka, police took 39 members of the opposition Awami League party into custody, including a former minister. "A total of 39 people, including former state minister Mr Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Dhaka University teacher Mr Muntasir Mamun and some other leaders of the Awami League were arrested on Saturday night," an officer of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police said.
Police said the people picked up in Dhaka were held for suspicious activities and were not directly linked to the Mymenshingh blasts, although they were arrested within hours of the explosions. Dhaka police gave no other details.
The Awami League condemned the arrest of its members and said the blasts were the work of radical Islamic groups.