Explosives, gun-making tools recovered from Dholaikhal

Police yesterday recovered two improvised explosive devices (IED), gun powder, and bomb-making materials from a shop of a market in Old Dhaka's Dholaikhal area.

In a daylong drive, Wari Division police also recovered tools and materials used for making firearms from another shop of the same market. Later, the bomb disposal unit of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police defused the explosives, according to witnesses.

Police failed to arrest anyone in the incident, but suspect that the explosives were gathered for subversive activities ahead of Victory Day and national elections.

Meanwhile, officials of CTTC unit, requesting anonymity, said the dice and bullet shells recovered from the shops have similarities to those recovered earlier from banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad Bangladesh (Huji-B) dens.

This kind of techniques are mainly seen among Huji-B bomb making experts, but they did not find any evidence of the militant group's involvement in it yet, the officials added.

Rahmatullah Chowdhury, additional deputy commissioner of CTTC, said their experts are analysing the materials recovered from the shops.

Eyewitnesses said around 9:30am, a team of Wari police started searching the shop named "Ekram Motors" of Sattar Market on Goalghat Lane of Dholaikhal. It took around three hours to recover the explosives, witnesses said.

Acting on a tip-off, local police started the drive in Dholaikhal since Friday night, and finally found the explosives in the morning, said Mohammed Farid Uddin, deputy commissioner of Wari Division police. 

"We first discovered explosives at a shop named 'Ekram Motors' and informed the bomb disposal unit of CTTC around 1:00pm," he said, adding they later found the firearm-making materials from another shop of the market named "Nadim & Brothers".

The bomb disposal unit defused the IEDs, that CTTC sources said were ready to be detonated and were as powerful as grenades, around 1:45pm.

"We are suspecting that miscreants might be hoarding and making the arms and explosives for subversive activities ahead of Victory Day and national election," the DC said.

However, further investigation is required before making any definitive comments. "We have already started investigating to solve the mystery and determine the sources of explosives," DC Farid added.

A case was filed in this regard, while shop-owners Ekram and Dipu are on the run. Several shop owners of the market said the owners did not open their shops regularly.