Dhaka: A ruling party lawmaker and 30 other people escaped unhurt after a grenade lobbed inside a house in South-Western Bangladesh failed to explode, a report said on October 16.

The incident took place on October 15 late at the home of Mashiur Rahman, a Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) member, in the frontier Jhenaidah district, 130 kms (80 miles) from Dhaka.

Rahman was talking to some 30 visitors as the grenade came through a roadside window, the private UNB news agency reported quoting police and witnesses.

Police defused the explosive and launched an investigation. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Jhenaidah borders India's West Bengal state and is among several districts where outlawed leftwing groups are active.

The attack came two days after Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, whose BNP-led alliance took office in 2001, asked party lawmakers to fight rising crime.

AFP