At least one Jamaat-e-Islami activist was injured while allegedly making bombs at his home in the Rasulbag residential area at Bakalia in Chittagong early on Wednesday.
Md Nasrullah, 36, managed to flee after the incident but police detained his 42-year-old brother, Asadullah, a local Jamaat activist, along with his wife, Asma-ul Husna, 24. Asadullah dismissed the incident as a blast of a refrigerators compressor.
Police said the explosion occurred around 1:15am on the ground floor of the two-storey building at No. 109 in the ‘A’ block at Rasulbag. Residents of the building began dousing the resulting fire on their own but soon became panicky and called the police.
Md Mohsin, officer-in-charge (OC) of Bakalia police station, said Nasrullah had managed to flee before the arrival of law enforcers but they were able to recover gunpowder, petrol and other bomb-making equipment from the room.
“It is clear that the escapee had been manufacturing bomb which went off in the room,” he said.
Moshtak Ahmed, additional deputy commissioner of south zone of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said efforts were being made to arrest Nasrullah, while his brother and sister-in-law had been detained.
The police official said the bombs were being made for carrying out subversive activities in the port city ahead of October 25. He also said they had sealed the building off in the morning, adding that a case was lodged with Bakalia police station in this regard.
On October 7, a big explosion in the Lalkhan Bazar Madrassa run by Hefazat-e-Islam senior leader Mufti Izharul Islam in the port city injured five students, of which three later succumbed to their injuries.
Police had recovered bomb-making materials from the Madrassa after the incident and arrested Mufti Izhar’s son.
