‘Crude bomb’ thrown at Puja mandap in Tantibazar, five injured with knife

There has been an incident of ‘crude bomb’ being thrown at a Durga Puja Mandap in Tantibazar area of Old Dhaka. Though the bomb caught fire slightly, nobody was injured from that.

Police has recovered the bomb made by filling a glass bottle with petrol. The incident occurred around 7:00 pm on Friday.

Locals say that a group of youths from an alley beside the Puja mandap tossed a bottle aiming at the altar. When volunteers went after the attackers, they were attacked with knives. At least five people have been injured from this.

Following the incident of attack on the Puja mandap, additional commissioner of the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Rezaul Karim Mallik came to visit the scene.

Afterwards, he told journalists that the attack occurred centering a mugging incident. Three people have been detained from the scene. Attempts are on to learn details by interrogating them, he added.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioner of police in Lalbagh Zone Jashim Uddin has stated that a piece of gold jewellry has been recovered from one of the three detainees.

However, general secretary of Tantibazar Puja Celebration Committee Bijoy Shah told Prothom Alo that the crude bomb attack and the mugging are two separate incidents. The crude bomb has been thrown at the Puja mandap to cause chaos.