Police defuse ‘pressure cooker’ bomb found in bag left at grocery shop in Ashulia

Police have recovered a specially constructed improvised explosive device (IED) from a travel bag left at a grocery shop in Ashulia, Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka.

The device was later safely defused by the Bomb Disposal Unit of the police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Division.

According to Ashulia police station, at around 9:30 pm on Thursday, a man wearing a face mask entered a grocery shop in the Charabag area of Ashulia to buy a soft drink. He handed the shopkeeper a Tk200 note to pay for his purchase. As the shopkeeper did not have sufficient change, he went to an adjacent shop to exchange the note. When he returned, the customer had disappeared, leaving behind a locked travel bag.

Police said that after waiting for a considerable time without the man returning to collect the bag, the shopkeeper informed local residents. When the bag was opened, they found a pressure cooker wrapped in Scotch tape. Suspecting it to be hazardous, they alerted Ashulia police station. Police officers arrived at the scene, cordoned off the area and carried out an initial inspection. They confirmed that the tape-wrapped pressure cooker contained explosive materials and immediately informed senior officials.

At around 6:30 am on Friday, after securing the surrounding area, the CTTC Bomb Disposal Unit transported the device to a nearby open field, where it was safely defused.

Mohammad Tariqul Islam, Officer-in-Charge of Ashulia police station, said a case had been filed under the Explosive Substances Control Act.

He told Prothom Alo that efforts were under way to identify and arrest the individual who left the travel bag at the shop.