[Bengladesh bomb blast kills 21. Read photo caption
below.]

DHAKA, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Bangladesh police arrested three suspects Sunday after a bomb killed 22 people at a ruling Awami League meeting, state news agency BSS said.

Fifteen people died at the scene of Saturday night's bombing in Narayanganj, nine miles east of the capital. Nearly 40 were critically injured and seven have died in hospital.

Police said one of the arrested, Shamsul Alam Liton, was a newspaper reporter and allegedly an armed member of the small right-wing Freedom Party, a non-parliamentary party.

Police identified another of the arrested, Shah Alam, as an activist of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), BSS said. The third was described as a female factory worker.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed her opponents for the attack, described by police as the worst in Bangladesh's history. She accused opponents Sunday of trying to disrupt democracy in the run-up to an election campaign.

``They are engaged in politics of blood. They are threatening to stage a repeat of 1975,'' she told parliament. Her father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was killed in a 1975 coup with other family members.

Hasina will seek re-election in October after her five-year term ends on July 13. Her main challenger will be Begum Khaleda Zia of the BNP, a former prime minister.

PROTESTS BREAK OUT

Awami supporters demonstrated after the bombing, the latest in a series that have killed more than 80 people in two years. The BNP said protesters stoned and shot at a car carrying Khaleda Zia Sunday.
Khaleda returned to Dhaka and told reporters: ``The government plotted to kill me.'' Police could not confirm the shooting.

The BNP called for a two-day general strike in protest from Tuesday, its secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan told a news conference. He called for a ``proper judicial inquiry'' into the bombing.

SHOOT-OUT AFTER BLAST

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack. ``The culprits must be found and punished,'' Home Minister Mohammad Nasim said on a visit to the blast site.

Police said Awami League lawmaker Shamim Osman, who was holding a meeting of party workers and supporters at the time of the blast, was injured but recovering in hospital.

Witnesses said a brief exchange of gunfire followed the blast. ``Apparently some people were trying to shoot Shamim Osman while he was being transferred to hospital. His supporters returned the fire,'' one said.

Both parties say their rivals have heavily armed members ahead of October's polls.

The Awami League accuses opposition parties of using armed criminals to kill people and create anarchy in the run-up to the polls.

``Even my life is under threat,'' Hasina said. ``People know who is threatening us. They are those who have been utterly frustrated by the failure of their campaign to oust my government.''

Government ministers said security must be tightened for Hasina and her sister.

HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

Two weeks ago a blast killed 10 people at a Roman Catholic church at Banaripara in Hasina's home district, Gopalganj.

Police say they have confirmed the involvement of Islamic militants in an April 14 bomb blast at a Bengali New Year concert in Dhaka which killed seven people and wounded many.

They also suspect Islamists in the Banaripara church explosion but have not yet completed their investigations.

The blood-letting that began after the 1975 military coup was followed by several mutinies, including one in 1981 that killed Khaleda's husband and former president Ziaur Rahman
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PHOTO CAPTION

Bangladeshis look at a bomb-ravaged office building of the ruling Awami League party in Narayanganj town near Dhaka, June 17, 2001. Bangladesh police said at least 22 people have died of injuries after a powerful bomb exploded in the building. (Rafiqur Rahman/Reuters)
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