Powerful bomb recovered from school bag in Faridpur

A powerful remote-controlled bomb was recovered from a discarded school bag in Faridpur and safely neutralised through a controlled explosion on Sunday morning, officials said.

The device was first spotted on Saturday around 12:30pm, hidden in a pile of straw near the Alipur Bridge over the Kumar River and was defused around 10:00am by a 10-member Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) bomb disposal team flown in from Dhaka.

Army and police personnel initially secured the suspected explosive and later relocated it to the Bisharjan Ghat area, where it was surrounded with sandbags.

Following a request from district police, the ATU bomb disposal team arrived in Faridpur on Saturday night, inspected the device and began the neutralisation process on Sunday morning.

ATU bomb disposal inspector Shankar Kumar Ghosh said the device was highly powerful and designed to be detonated using a remote-control mechanism.

The disposal operation began around 9:30am with a 10-member ATU team flown in from Dhaka. For security reasons, the army and district police sealed off both sides of the Alipur Bridge, as well as riverbanks on either side, restricting civilian movement during the operation.

According to witnesses, the bomb was connected to new wiring and detonated electrically from an estimated distance of 50 metres. The blast sent metal fragments at least 20 feet into the air.

Faridpur Additional Superintendent of Police (Sadar Circle) Azmir Hossain said the operation was launched based on confidential information about an explosive concealed near the bridge. A general diary has been filed with Kotwali Police Station in connection with the incident, said Officer-in-Charge Shahidul Islam.