near the ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’ ‘Bombs hurled from 5th floor’

BANGLADESH NEWS

A Rapid Action Battalion official was injured in the explosions that rocked the rally venue at around 4:45pm. bdnews24.com correspondent Suliman Niloy saw the RAB member bleeding as the shrapnels hit him.

RAB intelligence branch chief Ziaul Ahsan told that injured Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) Jalal Uddin was admitted to a city hospital right away.

The bombs exploded 100 yards from the Ganajagaran Mancha, the platform of the youth uprising that has captured the imagination of the nation with demands of death sentence for all war crimes convicts and a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami that committed war crimes to thwart independence in 1971.

One of the witnesses, theatre group Natyadhara member ‘Beauty’ said: “I saw a man wearing a black T-shirt hurling two bombs from the fifth floor [of BSMMU]. Then I heard the explosions.”

“I went up immediately to that floor with some more people. We found a pair of sandals in that exact place. There were some people on that floor and the situation was normal. I have also told the police about the sandals,” she said.

“The bombs were hurled from inside of the Block-A of the BSMMU. Both bombs exploded within one-foot radius,” another witness, Sheikh Jahel, 30, added.

Friday’s explosions at Shahbagh were the first of any kind of attack as no such incident took place in the past month since the peaceful and spontaneous movement began at the intersection.

Hundreds of people wielding sticks and metal rods tried to storm BSMMU’s Block-A right after the explosions. But the Ganajagaran Mancha activists, police and hospital security staff stopped them as police and RAB swept the whole building and the area.

Later, around 5:55pm Shahbagh Police’s Officer-in-Charge Sirajul Islam said, “We searched the whole block. We have also detained and are quizzing several people including the fifth floor canteen staff upon suspicion.”

They detained 15 people during the raid and drove them away in a police van at around 6:15pm.

Shahbagh police Inspector MA Jalil said that the detainees were brought to the Detective Branch headquarters of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police at Minto Road and being interrogated.

Security measures have been ramped up at the hospital gate since the detonations of the bombs.

bdnews24.com correspondent Shahidul Islam was near the main stage of the Nari Jagaran rally, organised to mark the International Women’s Day on Friday.

He said the blasts panicked the crowd sitting on the street between BSMMU and BIRDEM.

The organisers asked the people to keep calm as they shouted 'Joy Bangla' to allay fears following the explosions, urging all to not budge a bit.

A group of people brandishing sticks had entered the BSMMU right away as the bombs were thrown from there. The rally continued uninterrupted 15 minutes after the explosions.

The demonstrators, mainly young men and women, have been carrying out the movement at Shahbagh since Feb 5 demanding death penalty to all war criminals. The movement stepped into its 32nd day on Friday.

They also want nationalisation of Jamaat‘s considerable assets.

On Feb 15, one of the frontline Shahbagh activists and blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was killed near his Pallabi residence. Another online activist Saniur Rahman was stabbed on Thursday night.

‘No security lack’

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hassan Mahmood Khandaker said the bomb explosions were ‘unexpected’.

He said the blasts did not take place because of a lack of security at the area.

Khandaker visited the scene around 7:30pm, two and a half hours after the explosions.