Suicide-bomber bicyclist kills seven, wounds dozens in Bangladesh.

NETROKONA, Bangladesh - A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up in a crowded Bangladesh street, killing seven and wounding dozens in the latest attack authorities blamed on extremists wanting to create an Islamic state.

Hundreds of people had gathered on the narrow street on Thursday in the northern town of Netrokona after police safely detonated another bomb, found abandoned in a building, when the suicide blast sent shrapnel ripping through the air.

Among the injured was another bomber, who police said failed to detonate his explosives.

Rezaul Hossain Sumon, a 20-year-old college student with shrapnel wounds all over his body, said from his bed at a hospital in nearby Mymensingh town when the suicide bombing happened, about 400 people had been gathered in the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of the bomb police had just defused.

He said he saw a man on a bicycle pull a cord tied to his body just before the explosion.

Islamists demand Bangladeshi women wear veil.

DHAKA (Reuters) - A banned Islamist militant group blamed for a series of bombings in Bangladesh has threatened to kill women, including non-Muslims, if they do not wear the veil, a statement said.

The statement by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen came hours after Thursday’s suicide bomb attack in a northern town that killed at least eight people, the latest of a series of blasts blamed on militant groups in their campaign for an Islamic state.

“Women will be killed if they are found to move around without wearing burqa (veil) from the first day of Jilhaj,” the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen said in the statement sent to a Dhaka newspaper office.

Jilhaj refers to the Arabic month beginning early January.

“Women, including non-Muslims, are hereby advised not to go out of home without burqa. Seclusion has been made compulsory for you,” said the statement in Bangla language, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Friday.

The group, which wants the introduction of sharia laws in mainly-Muslim Bangladesh, also ordered women students at Dhaka University not to step out after sunset, prompting police to increase security around the campus.