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Azad said the bomb attack took place around 8:15pm. He said the High Commssioner was not in the car at the time of the explosion but three people including his driver were injured.

The OC said the bomb attack took place in front of the Khulna Chamber of Commerce and Industries building where Saran was having a meeting. Police identified the injured as Khorshed Alam, the car’s driver, police Constable Liton Krishna Haldar, and driver of a Khulna Chamber member Abdul Jabbar Babu.

Khorshed is a driver of Khulna City Corporation who has been driving the Indian envoy around in the city.

Witnesses said Saran entered the Khulna Chamber building at around 7:30pm to share views with the chamber on ways to develop bilateral trade. The bombs went off soon after, they added.

Top pfficials of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police visited the scene.

OC Azad said efforts were on to track down the assailants and arrest them.

Saran, however, declined comment.

Earlier in the afternoon, Saran distributed assistance among the Sidr-affected people at the Morelganj Municipality auditorium in Bagerhat district.

He is staying at the City Inn Hotel in Khulna and scheduled to start for Dhaka on Saturday morning.

In November 1975, Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Samar Sen was seriously injured in an attack towards the end of his tenure in Dhaka. But Sen refused Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's offer to be evacuated to Kolkata by an Indian helicopter.

He insisted he had full faith in Bangladeshi doctors, who finally cured him and Sen went on to serve as India's permanent representative to the UN. He died in 2003 at the age of 89.

In May 21, 2004, the British High Commissioner to Dhaka Anwar Choudhury survived an unsuccesful grenade attack on him by suspected Islamic radicals.

Palestinian officials voiced optimism on Sunday the resignation of US-backed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad would not hinder Washington's planned development initiative for the West Bank.