Staff Reporter:
Police have filed a case under the Explosives Act after a bomb was found inside a pressure cooker left outside a tea stall in the capital’s Ashulia area.
Ashulia Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Tarikul Islam confirmed the incident on Friday afternoon.
According to police, local residents noticed an abandoned bag in front of Joyi General Store, a tea stall owned by Hridoy Chakma in the Khejur Bagan area of Ashulia, at around 11:00pm on Thursday. As the bag remained unattended for a long time, it aroused suspicion.
When the bag was opened, people found a pressure cooker-shaped object resembling an improvised explosive device (IED) and immediately informed police.
Police subsequently alerted the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Bomb Disposal Unit, whose specialists arrived at the scene and recovered the device.
The bomb disposal unit said it received the call at around 1:00am and reached the scene by 3:00am. The device was later taken to a nearby open field, where a pit was dug and sandbags were placed around it before it was destroyed in a controlled explosion at 6:22am on Friday.
A member of the bomb disposal team said the explosive device had been assembled inside a pressure cooker using ball bearings and chemical explosives, making it a powerful improvised bomb.
OC Tarikul said local residents alerted police after spotting the suspicious object inside the bag outside the shop. The bomb disposal team safely recovered and neutralised the device.
“A case has been filed under the Explosives Act in connection with the incident, and efforts are underway to identify and arrest those responsible,” the OC said.
