|PIC1|Church leaders in predominantly Muslim Bangladesh have expressed grave concern over a recent series of bomb blasts widely believed to be perpetrated by extremist groups wanting to impose Islamic Sharia law on the country, reports Ecumenical News International.

Two explosions in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, on 9 December left 8 people dead while 24 people, including judges, lawyers and policemen were killed in four similar suicide blasts in just three weeks.

"Our fear is that they [Islamic extremists] are trying to grab power by creating terror in the minds of people," said Elgin Saha, president of the National Council of Churches of Bangladesh (NCCB) from his office in Dhaka.

"Not only Christians, but everyone is concerned about the spate of bombings here,” he said.

While Muslims make up 83 per cent of the 144 million people living in Bangladesh, Christians number only around 400 000.

"The situation seems to be getting worse," observed Saha, a Baptist church member who heads a Christian group called Health Education and Economic Development, reports ENI.

|QUOTE|Police officials suspect that extremist Islamist groups intent on bringing about the implementation of Sharia-based Islamic law are behind the attacks.

“Everyone feels lucky when they return home safe these days,” said Sudhir Adhikari, former president of the National Council of Churches in Bangladesh.

“You don’t know when the next bomb would go off,” he said, adding that “without political patronage, such serial blasts could not go on,” reports ENI.

|AD|Adhikari said if political parties are “sympathetic to the demand for overturning democracy and ushering Sharia, it is a matter of serious concern for the Christians and others”.

Roman Catholic Bishop Theotonius Gomes, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh, speculated on the possible reasons for the blasts.

“It could be a repercussion of the developments in the West,” said Gomes, who is also the auxiliary bishop of Dhaka.

According to Gomes, the Catholic bishops in the country sent an open letter to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in September in which they urged the Bangladeshi Government to ensure peace and security for all.

The letter followed a huge coordinated attack in August in which more than 200 rudimentary bombs were simultaneously detonated across 63 of the 64 districts of Bangladesh.

The attack coincided with the brutal murder of two Christian field workers with Christian Life Bangladesh while they were sleeping at a village in Dhupapara, around 100km from Dhaka.