<b>Hyd blasts</b>: Dhaka rejects Indian claim

Bangladesh on Monday rejected the Indian claim that a terrorist group based on its soil was involved in the weekend bombings in Hyderabad.

"The allegations are baseless, I reject them," Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury was quoted as saying by the media.

He was asked about Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's statement that available information pointed to the involvement of international terrorist organisations in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Earlier, the adviser condemned the attacks saying such abhorrent violence is a blot on the conscience of humanity.

"Our thoughts today are with those who lost their dear ones in this dastardly act," he wrote in a letter to Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Chowdhury told reporters that the Bangladesh government would never retreat from protecting the country's interests in the face of any wrongful allegations.