Some ruling Awami League men yesterday alleged that Abdul Quader Mirza is the mastermind behind Friday's bomb attack on the residence of his elder brother Obaidul Quader, also the general secretary the party.

Terming the attack a "drama", they claimed that Quader Mirza, who is the incumbent mayor of Basurhat municipality, did it with the aim to falsely implicate his rival.

Around a dozen AL leaders of Noakhali's Campaniganj upazila, lead by the unit president freedom fighter Khizir Hayat, came up with the claim at a press conference in the upazila yesterday.

They also demanded the immediate arrest and punishment of Mirza. 

However, ruling party men had to conclude the press conference half way through due to police intervention amid the ongoing lockdown.

Earlier on Friday around 10:15pm, a gang of miscreants hurled five bombs at the village home of Obaidul Quader in Campaniganj. Of these, two exploded.

Police arrested a man for interrogation in this connection.

Mirza and his rival Mizanur Rahman Badal, the organising secretary of upazila AL, blamed each other for the bomb attack.

Hours before the attack, Mirza on Friday afternoon on a Facebook live post announced that he and the people of Campaniganj would not let Obaidul Quader come to the upazila because the latter did not initiate any development work in his own electoral constituency despite being a minister.

A day before, at least 20 people were injured in clash between the supporters of Mirza and Badal on Thursday.

Contacted, Mir Zahidul Haque Rony, officer-in-charge of Campaniganj Police Station, said additional law enforcers have been deployed to avert any untoward incident.

Mirza came to limelight after making comments against corruption and misdeeds committed by AL men in Noakhali and Feni for the last few months.

On multiple occasions, he even came down heavily on government officials for their alleged involvement with corrupt politicians. He also repeatedly criticised his brother Obaidul Quader and his wife for patronising corrupt politicians.

This made the political situation in Companiganj upazila volatile. Two deadly clashes had even occurred there between two AL groups over establishing supremacy in the area.

One group was led by Mirza and the other by Badal, a follower of lawmakers Ekramul Karim Chowdhury and Nizam Uddin Hazari.

The first clash took place on February 19 that killed a local journalist Borhan Uddin Muzakkir, 30, and injured many others.

The two groups again clashed on March 9, leaving CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver Alauddin, 22, dead and 30 others injured.