At least six people were injured in a bomb attack at a mosque inside the Issa Khan Base of Bangladesh Navy at Patenga of the port city yesterday afternoon.
In a statement issued yesterday evening, the Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) Directorate said five or six devotees had received minor injuries as two hand bombs exploded after the Jumma prayers at the Issa Khan Mosque.
The injured were released after primary treatment. A person was arrested from the spot with several unexploded explosives. He was being interrogated, the statement said.
The statement added that outsiders are also allowed to say prayers at the mosque.
The ISPR said necessary investigations were under way.
Earlier, CMP Deputy Commissioner (port) Harunur Rashid Hazari told reporters that the explosion had taken place inside the Issa Khan Mosque during Jumma prayers.
“One person was arrested with three handmade grenades. The grenades were strapped to his body,” Hazari said, adding that the arrestee was under police custody for interrogation.
The attack was conducted to create panic and destabilise the situation, he said.
CMP Commissioner Abdul Jalil Mondal and DC (port) Hazari rushed to the spot on information. However, they had to wait outside the entrance for permission to enter the naval base, said witnesses.
The main gate of the base and the BN Hospital gate were put under lock and key soon after the explosion.
Journalists were also barred from entering the area.
A team of police’s Bomb Disposal Unit headed by CMP deputy commissioners (DB) Kusum Dewan and Mokhtar Hossain entered the base around 4:30pm.
Deputy Assistant Director of Fire Service and Civil Defence Abdul Malek told the Dhaka Tribune that four vehicles and an ambulance were sent to the spot. But the authorities did not allow them inside saying that there was no need of it, he added.
The injured persons were reportedly admitted to Combined Military Hospital. The officials of Bangladesh Navy did not share any information with the media over the matter.
Meanwhile, in the evening, Assistant Commissioner (port) Jahedul Islam said that explosions had taken place in two mosques – Issa Khan Mosque and Hospital Mosque – inside the base simultaneously.
He also said that three hand grenades were exploded while 11 unexploded grenades were recovered from the spot.
Two civil staff members of the Navy were arrested with grenades, he said. They are Ramzan, a batman, and Abdul Mannan, a ball keeper. “They used to reside inside the base,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
In September, the Times of India reported citing intelligence sources that a little-known militant group Hilful Fuzul al Islam had planned to carry out bomb explosions on over 100 government and non-government installations in Chittagong Port area in collaboration with several other outlawed Islamist groups in retaliation to an escalated security clampdown against militants.