Two cops injured in bomb attack

Two policemen, including a security detail of LGRD Minister Tazul Islam, were injured when a bomb went off at Science Lab intersection last night. 

The bomb was thrown from the footbridge at the intersection around 9:20pm, said police and eyewitnesses.  

However, injured security detail ASI AB Shahabuddin told The Daily Star that it seemed to him that the bomb was thrown from Dhanmondi Road-1.  

“Six policemen were in the minister’s security team and the minister was going to a programme of Border Guard Bangladesh. We got stuck at the traffic lights at Science Lab intersection. The bomb exploded when I got off [from the escort vehicle] and walked ahead to ask traffic police to clear the way for the minister.”  

He was going towards traffic constable Aminul Islam, 40, who was also injured.  

Aminul suffered splinter injuries to his right hand fingers while Shahabuddin had injuries to his legs, one of which had a fracture. They were at Dhaka Medical College Hospital and out of danger, said a doctor there.

Visiting the spot, Asaduzzaman Miah, commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, “Police are investigating the incident and trying to identify the attacker by scrutinising CCTV footage.”  

He told reporters that incident might be similar to the bomb attacks on policemen in Gulistan and Malibagh this year but the probe could confirm that.

A CCTV camera installed at a shop nearby did not cover the spot while another one at a mosque was broken, an officer said.  

Mahmudul Hasan, spokesperson for the LGRD ministry, said the minister was unhurt and that he was in his car some yards away from the spot. The minister visited the injured policemen at the hospital, he said.  

The police cordoned off the blood-stained spot. A bomb-disposal squad of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit were collecting evidence.  

A CTTC official, requesting anonymity, told The Daily Star that said the bomb was similar to the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) recovered at the capital’s Paltan and Khamarbari on July 24.  

“We suspect that the same group who planted the IED’s at Paltan and Khamarbari are behind this attack. But investigation could prove that,” the officer said.  

Visiting the injured at the hospital, Inspector General of Police Mohammad Javed Patwary said they have instructed all police units across the country to beef up security measures.  

He said they could not say who or what was the target.  

On May 26, two people, including a female police officer, were injured after a bomb went off near a police pickup in the capital’s Malibagh intersection.  

On April 29, two traffic police constables and a community traffic policeman were injured in a blast in Gulistan. 

Hours after the explosions, SITE Intelligence Group, an American company that tracks online activity of white supremacist and jihadist organisations, said the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks. 

However, CTTC unit claimed to have arrested five people on August 9 for their suspected involvement in planting the IED’s in Paltan and Khamarbari. 

Investigators had found that CCTV cameras near Paltan, Khamarbari, Gulistan, and Malibagh spots had been damaged days before the bombs went off.