Bomber still not identified

Three days have gone by since a suicide attack in an Ahmadiyya mosque in Sayedpur Chalkpara of Rajshahi but police still do not know who the bomber was.

The bomber set off the explosive belt he was wearing inside the mosque of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat of Bagmara upazila on Christmas Day.

The bomber was killed and three Ahmadiyyas were hurt.

The police were yet to launch a field-level investigation. They did do some paper work for processing of the investigation.

Inspector Abul Kalam Azad of Bagmara Police Station, the investigation officer of the case, said they were busy listing the evidence, taking court orders for sending the evidence to respective departments for tests, sending those, and burial of the body.

The bomber before the attack told the mosque's muezzin Shaheb Ali Talukhdar that he studied at Rajshahi Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and that he hailed from Mohonpur upazila of Rajshahi.

He also told the muezzin that he had been visiting a relative in the village.

“We could not visit the polytechnic institute, but we requested respective police stations for the enquiry,” said Inspector Azad.

Principal Abdur Rezzak of RPI said they had seen his photograph on newspapers and television channels and that he was aware that the bomber claimed to be a student of RPI.

“None of our teachers and students could recognise him. We can check our registers if we could get his name or other details,” he said.

US-based SITE Intelligence Group said Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

The claim could not be verified independently.

The body of the bomber was buried yesterday at Hatimkhan graveyard in Rajshahi by Quantum Foundation after police handed the body over to them.

With the bomber still not identified, villagers were in a spot of bother.

Even though the village is dominated by Sunni Muslims and despite differences in ideologies, people of the Ahmadiyya community had been living there in peace.

“During festivals, we visit each other and share food,” said Saiful Islam, president of Ahmadiayya Jamaat of the village.

Some 30 families chose the Ahmadiyya ideology in 1999 and established the mosque the following year. At present, about 35 to 40 families in the village are Ahmadiyyas, also known as Kadianis.

Villager Shahidul said the Sunnis and Ahle Hadith Muslims had been offering prayers at the Ahmadiyya mosque. After a few years, the Ahle Hadith men built a separate mosque some 100 yards away.

Central Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat leaders yesterday termed the Bagmara blast an international conspiracy and directed Ahmadiyyas to find the attackers.

Mobasserur Rahman, national amir of the Jamaat, and national muballig Abdul Awal Khan Chowdhury from Dhaka went to the village yesterday afternoon and talked to the Ahmadiyyas there.

“The communal mentality revealed in the attack was not typically Bangalee. It [the mentality] is imported from another place outside the country,” said Awal.

They called upon the police to find the perpetrators without delay and bring them to justice. They also sought security for the Ahmadiyyas at the village. 

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up at Chandtara village of Ghatail upazila in Tangail where around 30 Ahmadiyya families live, our Tangail correspondent reports quoting local police.