The victim, who died at the Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, was identified as Gani Miah, 35, while the two earlier victims who died on the spot were identified as Shafique Miah, 11, and Alauddin, 30.

The Awami League at a rally in the city yesterday condemned the bomb attack and announced an eight-hour hartal programme in Sylhet district today.

Speakers at the rally said the terrorist attack in the holy shrine once again proves the government's failure to contain the slide in law and order that has gripped the country. City AL President and Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran chaired the rally.

Pointing to Jamaat MP Moulana Delwar Hossain Sayeedi's opposition to the 'mazar (shrine) culture' and the holding of Urs (religious gathering) on the shrine's premises, they said the involvement of 'fundamentalists' in the attack could not be ruled out.

They said the fact that no-one from the ruling party visited the shrine goes to show the government's apathy about the tragic incident.

A team of army bomb experts visited the place of occurrence and surrounding areas in the early hours of yesterday. They collected samples of bomb splinters and other evidences.

A 70-strong contingent of the paramilitary BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) together with a contingent of police has cordoned off a 2000-square-foot area around the spot where the bomb went off at around 8:30pm on Monday in the middle of a huge crowd, about 60 yards from the mausoleum.

The law-enforcers will remain deployed there indefinitely, official sources said.

Elsewhere within the precincts of the shrine and the adjacent mosque, this correspondent saw thousands of devotees chanting and praying at around 4:00am, only a few hours after the blast.

The deputy inspector general (DIG) of police (Sylhet Range) formed a 4-member committee of police officials to investigate the explosion. The committee has been instructed to report to the DIG within seven days.

Requesting anonymity, a senior police official hinted that the bomb went off minutes after it was planted, possibly a few inches underground.

A brother of the shrine's caretaker filed an FIR with the Kotwali Police yesterday and demanded punishment to the culprits.

He said that over several days leading up to the bomb blast, shrine authorities received anonymous phone calls threatening to disrupt the Urs.

The caretaker's family sources also alleged that authorities of the adjacent madrassah did not allow car parking facilities on their premises under pressure from the Jamaat-e-Islami that has allegedly been trying to thwart the Urs programme.

Kotwali police picked up 24 people from nearby areas and began interrogating them yesterday afternoon, a police official said.

The 2-day Urs ended through a munajat after Fajr prayers. Several thousand people were still in the area yesterday evening.