Sunday, April 29, 2012

Bomb hurled near home ministry

page source ''the daily star'':

Two youths riding a motorbike hurled two “bombs” -- one in front 0f the home ministry and another on a road adjacent to the Secretariat -- yesterday afternoon.
“The bombs went off around 3:50pm, creating panic among the home ministry officials and pedestrians there,” said Mahfuzul Haque, senior public relations officer at the home ministry.
The explosions took place during the hartal enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance to protest the disappearance of BNP leader M Ilias Ali.
None was injured in the explosions.
The home ministry official told The Daily Star two youths riding a motorbike came to the spot from the High Court area and hurled the bombs-- one inside the Secretariat and another on its adjacent road.
The youths immediately fled towards Zero Point, he added.
Following the blasts, several panic-stricken staff of the ministry got down from the four-storey building.
Sanwar Hossain, senior assistant commissioner of DMP's bomb disposal unit, told The Daily Star the bombs had no splinter and were not powerful enough to cause serious damages.
They were made only to create enormous sound after explosion, he alleged.
He also said such bomb has the capacity to hurt people in close range.
Immediately after the incident, Home Minister Shahara Khatun held an emergency meeting at her Secretariat office with State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku, the inspector general of police, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner and other high officials of police.
Emerging from the meeting, Tuku told reporters that the opposition must take the responsibility for the explosion inside the Secretariat.
“The hartal callers must take the responsibility of the blasts as hartal like any other anarchic activities provoke criminals, miscreants and militants to carry out such activities,” he said.
Meanwhile, a two-member probe committee has been formed to investigate the incident, said a home ministry official.
Mili Biswas, additional commissioner, and Mahtab Uddin, additional Deputy Commissioner of Ramna division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) are the members of the committee.
The investigators were asked to submit its report as soon as possible, a source in the ministry said.
To prevent recurrence of such incident, the government will intensify its combing operation across the country, Tuku said.
Urging the opposition to shun politics of anarchy, he said, “It is an act similar to that of militants and criminals. They [opposition] must come to the parliament.”
Asked whether on duty policemen showed any negligence while maintaining security in the Secretariat, he said the police department would investigate it.