Abir Abdullah / EPA

Garment workers shout slogans as they attend a procession on Tuesday to mourn victims of the Tazreen Fashions factory fire.

A deadly factory fire that killed at least 111 textile workers was sabotage, Bangladesh authorities said Tuesday, as protesters took to the streets for a second day and garment factories across the world's second biggest clothes exporter stopped work to mourn the dead.

The country's worst-ever industrial blaze broke out on Saturday and consumed the multi-story Tazreen Fashions factory building. More than 150 workers were injured.

The interior minister, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, said according to a preliminary inquiry, the fire was the result of arson.

He promised to bring the culprits to justice.

"We have come to the conclusion that it was an act of sabotage. We are finding out as of now who exactly the saboteurs are and all culprits will be brought to book," Alamgir said.

Thousands protest after Bangladesh fire traps workers

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also said she suspected the fire was an act of sabotage but she did not identify any suspect or say why she thought the cause might have been arson.

Andrew Biraj / Reuters

A worker visits a burnt garment factory Monday after a fire which killed more than a hundred people in Savar, Bangladesh.

Victim's families to get $1,200 each
The fire has put a spotlight on global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh, where the cost of labor is low — as little as $37 a month for some workers — and rights groups have called on big-brand firms to sign up to a fire-safety program.

Bangladesh has about 4,500 garment factories and is the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China, with garments making up 80 percent of its $24 billion annual exports.

Li & Fung, a company that has worked with the factory and that supplies some U.S. clothing firms, said on Sunday that it would provide victim’s families with approximately $1,200 each, and plans to set up an education fund for victim’s children.

On Monday, it said the company was "very distressed and saddened by the deaths" in a statement that also sought to reassure investors that the fire "will not have any material impact on the financial performance of Li & Fung."

"The total value of orders placed for the year with Tazreen on behalf of Kids Headquarters, a division of LF USA … amounted to approximately $111,000," it said in a statement.

"Li & Fung also confirms that the Company has not placed orders for other customers with Tazreen," it addded.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said in a statement that one of its suppliers subcontracted work to the factory without authorization and would no longer be used.

The company would not comment on what products were made at the factory and whether the products made it onto store shelves. A spokeswoman, Megan Murphy, said in an e-mail to NBC News that the company would have no further comment beyond the statement released on its website.

A number of other retailers like Gap and Nike rushed to deny any relationship with the plant.

Lax safety
More than 1,000 workers, some carrying black flags, demonstrated in the Ashulia industrial belt on the outskirts of the capital where the factory is located.

They blocked traffic moving on a highway and vowed to avenge the deaths of their colleagues, witnesses said.

"Never shall we give up demands for punishment for those responsible for the tragedy," one worker said.

Hundreds of protesters, mostly from labor and rights groups, also gathered in the capital demanding to know the cause of the fire and calling for punishment of those responsible.

All of Bangladesh's garment factories closed as the nation observed a day of mourning. Flags flew at half-mast on all government buildings.

Working conditions at Bangladeshi factories are notoriously poor, with little enforcement of safety laws. Overcrowding and locked fire doors are common. More than 300 factories near the capital shut for almost a week this year as workers demanded higher wages and better conditions.

At least 500 people have died in garment factory accidents in Bangladesh since 2006, according to fire officials.

Reuters contribtued to this report.

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Rachman / EPA

Umar Patek, center, waves as he leaves court in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A militant suspected of building the bombs used in the 2002 Bali attack went on trial Monday on terrorism charges, a year after he was captured in the same Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was hiding.

Umar Patek is the top remaining suspect in the Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people about a year after the Sept. 11 attacks and brought international attention to an al-Qaida-linked group intent on creating a pan-Islamic state throughout Southeast Asia.

Three masterminds in the attack already have been tried and executed, and authorities have made big strides in dismantling their regional terror group, Jemaah Islamiyah.

But Patek, nicknamed "Demolition Man" by Indonesian investigators, escaped the country after the attack and went on a nine-year flight from justice that took him to the Philippines and Pakistan, allegedly in pursuit of more terror opportunities.

$1 million bounty
Patek was captured in January 2011 in Abbottabad, where U.S. Navy Seals would kill Osama bin Laden just a few months later. Patek was then one of Asia's most wanted terror suspects, with a $1 million bounty on his head.

The trial could shed light on what Patek was doing in Abbottabad.

Indonesia's Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro has said he was believed to be trying to meet with bin Laden, but Patek has denied that, saying he was on way to seek shelter in Afghanistan. U.S. and Pakistan investigators have suggested Patek's stay in Abottabad was pure coincidence.

Patek, who also is accused in a string of Christmas Eve bombings at churches in 2000 that claimed 19 lives, was tightly guarded as he entered the West Jakarta District Court on Monday.

He smiled to reporters and photographers but did not respond to questions shouted by journalists. Wearing a white robe and a white skullcap, Patek, 45, sat quietly as the indictment was read out by state prosecutors, led by Bambang Suharijadi.

"His involvement in the Bali bombing as well as the church attacks were not as big as is being described," Patek's chief lawyer Ashluddin Hatjani told reporters afterward. "We will challenge that in a defense plea next week."

Patek, whose real name is Hisyam Bin Alizein and who has several aliases, could face death by firing squad if convicted of the various charges against him. The indictment includes charges of premeditated murder, hiding information about terrorism, illegal possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit terrorism.

Filing cabinets
After the charges were read, presiding judge Lexsy Mamoto adjourned the trial until next Monday. Patek then shook hands will all of the prosecutors except Rini Hartati, the only woman member of the team. Hartati held out her hand but Patek rejected it by putting his right hand on his chest.

In a re-enactment organized by police in Bali while he was in custody there, Patek showed how he and other conspirators stashed a 1,540-pound bomb in four filing cabinets, loaded it in a Mitsubishi L300 van along with a TNT vest bomb.

The van was detonated outside two nightclubs on Bali's famous Kuta beach.

Patek left Bali a few days before the Oct. 12 attacks were carried out, while Imam Samudra and two other masterminds of the Bali attacks — brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron — were caught, tried and executed.

Patek later told interrogators that he and other militants involved in the Bali bombing met a week after the attack to celebrate and assess how they could have done it better.

"The meeting was led by Muklas to evaluate the shortcomings of the execution of the suicide bombings," he was quoted as saying in an interrogation report obtained by The Associated Press. "The meeting was also to thank God and eat together for the success of the bombings that we had carried out in Bali."

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