Residents are alarmed after 16 powerful bombs were recovered from three separate areas of Savar and Ashulia in the past 12 days. Police arrested one person in connection with the incidents and said leaflets of the militant group Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, or JMB, were found with the bombs.
Late Tuesday night, police recovered a powerful pressure-cooker-like bomb wrapped in Scotch tape from a wooded area in front of the Jamia Ilmul Ilah Society madrasa and mosque in Laltek Gop’s Bari area of Savar’s Bongaon union.
That night, police also recovered 14 pipe bombs and a large quantity of bomb-making materials in raids in Shyampur and Hemayetpur of Savar’s Tetuljhora union. Arif Hossain, 28, was arrested in Hemayetpur. Police said five pipe bombs were found with him and another nine were recovered from a house based on information he provided.
Earlier, on July 30, a pressure-cooker-like bomb wrapped in Scotch tape was found in a travel bag outside Joyee General Store in Charabag, Ashulia. DMP bomb-disposal team members later took it to an open field and defused it in a controlled operation.
Bomb in a drum near madrasa
Residents said three people arrived on a battery-powered vehicle near the madrasa at about 1am and left a drum in the woods. Tea-shopkeeper Azim Uddin said he saw the men leave toward Sadapur after a neighbor woke him on hearing the sound of the drum being dropped. Residents later moved the drum to the madrasa and mosque gate and informed teachers and students.
Second-year student Abdullah Al Rafi said they opened the drum and found a Quran, wires, clothes, a diary, bakarkhani and a pressure-cooker-like bomb wrapped in Scotch tape. He said a remote control marked R1 was also inside and on the bomb, which he believed could be a signal.
Shopkeeper Rafiqul Islam said the bomb was removed from the drum and placed in an open field away from the madrasa gate. He estimated it weighed at least 15 kilograms. At about 6am, several people arrived on a battery-powered vehicle, took the drum and remote control and left. Residents became concerned about who had taken them and how.
Police cordoned off the bomb and placed it in a safe location. The DMP bomb-disposal team later moved it to an open field and defused it in a controlled process, causing a loud sound that shook the surrounding area. Police said they are investigating the bombs’ source, who made them, where they were intended to be used and the JMB leaflets.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report