Dhaka: A group of suspected radical Islamists hurled homemade bombs at a group of police officers guarding Eid prayers in Bangladesh, killing at least two people and injuring several others, officials said.

At least one of the bombs exploded at a prayer meeting where hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the district of Kishoreganj, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital of Dhaka, for the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.

Police and local media said one explosion occurred at a school outside the prayer ground in the northern Kishoreganj district where at least 200,000 people were gathered. There were also exchanges of gunfire at the scene.

The country's information minister said the target of the attack was a police convoy patrolling the religious gathering. The blast killed one police officer and one other person, Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said.

The violence comes just days after the country suffered a deadly hostage crisis in which 28 were killed, including 20 hostages, two policemen and six of the attackers. It was the worst in a recent wave of extremist attacks in Bangladesh targeting atheists, religious minorities and other so-called enemies of Islam.

The government has blamed homegrown militant groups of waging the violence in order to create political chaos in the country and undermine the secular government.