NO TIME FOR CHEER: Khaleda Zia raises a toast with Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in Beijing as her country struggles to come to grips with the blasts. (Reuters)

Dhaka, Aug. 18: Scores of suspects were rounded up in Bangladesh today for yesterday’s serial blasts, but the government said it isn’t sure which outfit is to blame.

A private TV channel sowed confusion by first reporting confessions by a local leader of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen ? suspected by most Bangladeshis to have carried out the bombings ? and then dropping the report without an apology.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia ? condemning the bombings as a “heinous, cowardly, conspiratorial and well-planned act of terrorism” ? said she would cut short her five-day China trip and return tomorrow.

Her government has set up a central inquiry committee, with 63 other panels in the districts hit by the bombings, which killed two persons and injured 150. Lutfuzzaman Babar, minister of state for home affairs, said: “We can’t say at this stage who are responsible for the blasts.”

The private NTV said Nasiruddin, a resident of the southern district of Satkhira, had told police that he had planted a bomb at Dhaka’s Judge’s Court. The bomb, he said, was supplied by Jamaat leader Muniruzzaman Munna.

Munna, who was arrested, also confessed, NTV said. It added that the police were looking for Jamaat leader Nayeemuddin. Officers in Satkhira and Dhaka would not confirm any of it.

In Dhaka, six suspects, one of them injured in a blast, were taken into custody. Ruhul Amin Bachchu claimed he had found a packet in a flower pot and did not know it was a bomb till it went off. Officers aren’t buying the story.

The police launched a special drive in the northern districts of Rajshahi, Natore, Chapai Nawabganj, Pabna and Sirajganj ? the stronghold of another banned extremist outfit, the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh. They arrested two local Jagrata leaders from Sirajganj, 10 people from Chapai Nawabganj and two suspects from the northern Panchagarh district.

Islamic parties spoke of a conspiracy to malign Jamaat. “They are not capable of doing such a thing nationwide,” said Maulana Abdur Rab Yusufi, a factional leader in the Islami Oikya Jote.

The ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Opposition Awami League accused each other of being involved in the bombings.

The ruling party’s secretary-general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said: “The Awami League wants to destabilise the country so that we can’t hold the Saarc summit in November.”

“Such an organised act is not possible without the help of the government,” countered Awami chief and former Prime Minister Hasina Wajed. “The government must quit.’

Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the border alert sounded yesterday continues to be in force. The state has informed the Centre about the measures and Delhi has expressed satisfaction, state home secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy said.

David C Mulford, US Ambassador to India, told reporters: “The United States has condemned yesterday’s serial blasts in Bangladesh.