Ten people were killed and 21 badly injured in what police said were Bangladesh's first suicide bombings and the latest in a string of attacks by Islamic extremists.

The government and police accused the hardline Jamayetul Mujahideen, which wants to introduce strict Islamic law in the Muslim-majority democracy, of staging the attacks targeting the legal system.

"Jamayetul Mujahideen is using Islam's name to kill people. The government has taken a hard stand and will now take an even harder stand," Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said during a visit to the south.

"This is the first suicide attack in Bangladesh," national police chief Abdul Kaiyum said after the blasts in the southeastern port city of Chittagong and in Gazipur near the capital Dhaka.

"These were powerful homemade bombs. It seems Jamayetul Mujahideen have stepped up their attacks after we arrested many of their members."

The attacks came two days after security was tightened around embassies in Dhaka following a faxed message in the name of "Al-Qaeda in South Asia".

The message contained a threat to blow up the US and British missions as well as all other European embassies. The Dhaka government has repeatedly denied suggestions that Bangladeshi extremists have any links with Al-Qaeda.

Tuesday's first attack was at Chittagong's main court where three people -- a suicide bomber and two police officers -- died. Five police officers and another would-be suicide bomber were seriously injured, police said.

A Jamayetul Mujahideen activist hurled a bomb into the court and then blew himself up after approaching a police stand at the court, police sub-inspector Rahul Amin said.

The second attack targeted the bar association in Gazipur where a suicide bomber wearing lawyers' robes and four others died. Seventeen people were also seriously wounded, Gazipur police officer-in-charge Kamrul Islam told AFP.

Two seriously injured people died late Tuesday in Dhaka Medical College to bring the death toll to 10, duty doctor Arif Hossain told AFP.

"I saw the fans catch fire and blood-stained, mutilated bodies lying on the ground," said witness Mohammad Bazlul Haq of the Gazipur blast.

"The body of the suicide bomber was there with some wires and bits of the bomb still strapped to his body."

The surviving bomber was in intensive care in hospital in Chittagong.

"I attacked the Chittagong court by the order of Allah," said Abul Bashar, 19, who lost both legs as he detonated a bomb strapped to his body.

"I did not do any wrong in carrying out the suicidal attack," he told the official BSS news agency from his hospital bed. "I did the right thing."

Before the latest blasts Jamayetul Mujahideen had been linked to a wave of attacks on courts and other official buildings nationwide that had killed seven people since August, including two judges earlier this month.

Leaflets bearing the group's name and calling for Islamic law have been found at previous blast sites. A similar leaflet was found at the scene of Tuesday's blast in Chittagong, police said.

Investigators also linked mujahideen who fought in Afghanistan with Mufti Abdul Hannan, the alleged leader of the Bangladesh chapter of Islamic militant organization Harkatul Jihad, to the earlier attacks.

Police believe Jamayetul Mujahideen has set up a suicide squad to pursue its fight for Islamic law in the world's third-largest Muslim-majority country with a population of 140 million.

Bangladesh cherishes its reputation as a moderate Muslim country and has been shaken by a wave of attacks over the past two years targeting politicians, legal figures, cultural events and shrines.

The government is a four-party coalition that includes two Islamic parties which have called for extremists to be rooted out.

The attackers "are enemies of humanity, the country and democracy. We will find them out and punish them," Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, minister for local government, told reporters.

Immediately after the blasts, lawyers boycotted courts and staged protests across the country. The Supreme Court Bar Association announced a national strike for Thursday to protest the attacks.

"These terrorists are out to destroy the country's judiciary and create chaos. We cannot allow this to happen, said its chief Mahbubey Alam.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies November 30, 2005)