Blast outside Indian leader's hotel

on 04/03/2013 10:17:35

A small home-made bomb has exploded outside a hotel in the Bangladesh capital where visiting Indian President Pranab Mukherjee is staying, police said.

Local police official Biplab Sarker said Mr Pranab was not in the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka when the explosion happened.

He said no-one was hurt.

The explosion comes amid a nationwide general strike called by the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which is protesting at trials of its leaders for allegedly committing crimes against humanity during Bangladesh's 1971 independence war.

Rioting has swept Bangladesh since Thursday when a war crimes tribunal convicted and sentenced Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a Jamaat leader, to death for committing atrocities during the war.

At least 58 people have died in clashes between police and protesters since Thursday.