Law enforcers recovered 167 crude bombs and a huge stash of explosives-making materials by raiding a house in the capital’s Azimpur on Monday.
Lalbagh police conducted the raid in a tin-roofed house in the New Paltan area of Azimpur around midday and recovered the bombs and materials including marble stones, gun powder, etc.
Police, however, could not make any arrest as nobody was there and the room was locked from the outside.
Kamal Hossain, caretaker of the house, said two young men rented the house in April but they never lived there regularly. The owner of the house informed police after he had come to know that there were bombs inside the locked room.
Police later picked him up for interrogation.
“The bombs are powerful. We have also found one kilogram of gunpowder in the house,” said Nurul Mottakim, OC of Lalbagh police station.
A team of the Detective Branch of Police took the seized bombs and materials for examination.
Motakkim also said there was no furniture in the house except for a cot. The young men used to come to the house occasionally and stayed nights. No neighbours knew them. They might have fled sensing police’s presence.
Intelligence sources said bomb makers rented houses in the capital disguised as students or unmarried service holders.
“They make bombs on order. There are other groups affiliated with them who hurl the bombs on contract. The leaders of some groups keep contact with local political leaders, who give them the ‘assignments’ to blast those in certain areas,” an official said.
He also said: “Cocktail-making and hurling business has been booming for the last few months, especially with the escalation of political unrest.”
In another development, at least 18 crude bombs were recovered from Tin Netar Mazar area on the Dhaka University campus on Monday.
DB police found the crude bombs in a vacant shoe box just behind the Tomb under a tree.
Dhaka University Proctor Amzad Ali said the bombs had been left there to give rise to untoward situations on the campus.
No one, however, was arrested in connection with the recovery.