Blast in Police Station: Police Rule Out Militant Group

Police have ruled out any involvement of militants at the Pallabi Police Station in the capital on Wednesday.

Investigators and Bomb Disposal Unit officials said the bomb was not identical to the explosive used by militants in recent years.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also said there was no link between the terrorist groups and the blast.

Approximately a week ago, last Friday and Saturday, an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in Paltan, and a grenade-like container was discovered at the intersection of Gulistan.

Talking about the explosion on Wednesday, an explosive expert and a former official of the Department of Explosives told The Business Standard that it is hard to imagine that local crime groups use explosives instead of modern weapons and firearms.

"The explosives are riskier and more likely to be detected by the police at any time. Instead, using guns or firearms is easier to create panic," he said.

The incident will be handled by the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

"The Bomb Disposal Unit will perform a thorough inquiry," Rahmatullah Chowdhury, the unit's additional deputy commissioner, told media.

"We visited the site and got to know the sort of explosive. This doesn't appear to be an IED explosive of the kind seen over the last few years."

"Looking at the device bits, we believe the local terrorist group has achieved so."

Two CTTC high officials and officials of the detective branch of the DMP told The Business Standard that members of the underworld gang "Shahadat Bahini" planned to kill a councillor of the Dhaka North City Corporation.

"They were planning to destabilise the political situation in the Mirpur area, and procured these explosives to blast them during a political assembly of the councillor," DMP Additional Commissioner Krishna Pada Roy said.

"They got the call from Shahadat and were planning to pull the job off, but Mirpur police somehow managed to detain them in a short time. Unexpectedly, one of the bombs exploded inside the police station," an ADC of Detective Branch Mirpur Division said.

A three-member investigation committee was set up to examine the explosion and asked to submit a report within three days, said DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media) Md Walid Hossain. The DMP Joint Police Commissioner (crime) is led by Md Shah Abid Hossain.

On 19 July, the Police Headquarters issued a warning on potential terrorist attacks ahead of Eid-Ul-Adha and on the month of August, when the National Mourning Day is observed.