Bangladesh bomb, fire injure two in minority Muslim mosque, police say

Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh - Unidentified attackers in eastern Bangladesh hurled homemade bombs at three mosques of the minority Ahmadiyya Islamic sect, wounding at least two people, police and witnesses said.

The attacks occurred Friday in Brahmanbaria town, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the capital, Dhaka, said area police chief A.T.M. Tareq.

The two wounded were hospitalized, Tareq said.

He said the attackers detonated at least 20 homemade bombs in two areas, where most residents belong to the Ahmadiyya sect.

There are about 100,000 Ahmadiyyas in Bangladesh, a Sunni Muslim-majority country whose constitution guarantees religious freedom.

The sect was founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a 19th-century Indian religious leader who claimed to be a prophet seeking Islam's renewal. The group differs from other Muslims over the definition of Islam's founder, Muhammad, being the "final" prophet. Ahmadiyyas have been persecuted and ostracized in many countries.

Bangladeshi Muslim hard-liners called Khatme Nabuwat _ along with two parties of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's coalition government _ want an official declaration saying Ahmadiyyas are not Muslims, and a ban on their writings and missionary activities.

Manjur Hossain, an Ahmadiyya leader in Brahmanbaria blamed Friday's attacks on Khatme Nabuwat members.

"We have been threatened by the group several times, and I am sure they are behind the attacks," he said.

Police said an investigation into the incident has been ordered.

On June 15, New York-based Human Rights Watch criticized Bangladesh's government over an alleged campaign of violence, harassment and intimidation against Ahmadiyyas.

The rights group said the government has failed to prosecute the perpetrators.

"It's a dangerous moment in Bangladesh when the government becomes complicit in religious violence," Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division, said in the report.