BANGLADESH

Police detectives claimed to have recovered on Tuesday raw materials used to make bomb from the Chittagong office of the Liberal Democratic Party, an ally of the main opposition BNP.

The unassembled bomb components, including two kilograms of powdered iron, 12 rolls of black tape, half kg gunpowder and 30 empty cans of chewing tobacco, were found at LDP's Nandankanan office on Tuesday, Assistant Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch A K M Tanvir Arafat told .

The detectives broke locks to enter the offices of Chittagong district's north and south units of LDP around 11:15pm, he said.

"There was a plan to create anarchy," he said.

An LDP activist Idris Ali was detained from the area after the drive that followed a tip-off, Arafat said. "He used to man the office."

Earlier in the day, LDP President Oli Ahmed said at a discussion in Dhaka that the BNP-led 18-party alliance would 'finish a game started by the government'.

"The prime minister thinks that the game is over as cases have been filed. But the game is not over yet; it has just begun. We'll end the game," he said.

He said the cases against top opposition leaders over violence during a shutdown were baseless.

The LDP chief instead blamed the government for blasts during hartal hours.

"They (ruling Awami League) themselves exploded cocktail bombs and lodged cases against opposition leaders," he said.

A vehicle had been torched in front of the PMO and crude bombs were hurled at the Secretariat during the countrywide shutdown on Apr 29 protesting the 'disappearance' of one of the party's organising secretaries, M Ilias Ali.

Police had filed two cases at Tejgaon and Shahbagh accusing a number of top opposition leaders. The accused leaders are on bail now.