4 arrested over cocktail blasts at Jatrabari police station

Detectives have arrested four people over cocktail explosions in front of Jatrabari Police Station in the capital. Based on information provided by them, four unexploded cocktails were recovered from the parking area of a house in Lalbagh in the capital.

The information was disclosed at a press conference held at the DMP Media Centre on Mintoo Road in the capital at 12:15pm on Sunday, September 20, by Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the DB's Wari division Molla Md Shahin.

The arrested are Md Raihan Uddin (35), Russel Khan (32), Alauddin (28) and Abdullah (28).

The deputy commissioner said that on September 18 at around 8pm, multiple cocktails exploded in front of Jatrabari Police Station. An auto-rickshaw driver named Ibadur Rahman (26) was injured in the incident. A case was filed with Jatrabari Police Station over the incident. During the investigation, analysing CCTV footage from the scene led to the identification of one person. Later, on Saturday, September 19, a man named Raihan Uddin was arrested from the Banshal area of the capital.

He said that based on information provided by Raihan, four unexploded cocktails were recovered from the ground-floor parking of a 10-storey building at 258 Jen Saha Road in Lalbagh around 12:15am. The cocktails were kept wrapped in red cloth tape inside a bag within a sack of brick chips. Later, the DMP's bomb disposal unit defused them. Later, based on information obtained during Raihan's interrogation, Russel Khan, Alauddin and Abdullah were arrested from the Deguir area of Demra, the DB said.

At the press conference, the Deputy Commissioner of the DB's Wari division said all four arrested are active members of a political organisation whose activities have been banned. The DB claimed Raihan is the office secretary of unit no. 6 of ward no. 32 of the Banshal police station of Dhaka South of that organisation. Additionally, Raihan was arrested last year in an anti-terrorism case at Motijheel Police Station and was in prison for five months. It is alleged that after being released on bail recently, he became involved in terrorist activities again.

The DB said it is primarily believed that the cocktail explosions were carried out to create panic among the public and for political purposes. It is also being examined whether there is a link with similar incidents that occurred in various areas of the capital over the past two to three days. The DB said it will seek remand for the arrested to try to find out the reason behind the incident and who else is involved.

Additionally, in response to a question on whether the arrested had contact with absconding political leaders, DB DC Molla Md Shahin said information about their mobile phone communications has been found. These are being analysed. More details on this will be known after interrogation in remand.