The bomb attack on Dinajpur’s historic Kantaji temple was not an act of terrorism by militants but the result of a business rivalry spun out of control, investigators and temple authorities said.
People associated with the Rash Mela, a profitable annual fair held on the temple grounds that was the target of the bombing, said the fair lessee’s business rivals may have been responsible for the attack.
Dinajpur district police said they do not yet have a clear lead in the investigation, but local police in Kaharole upazila said they were giving “maximum priority” to relations between rival lessees.
The explosion which left 10 people injured has caused the number of visitors to the Rash Mela to plummet.
Harish Ali Shah, who won the lease for the fair this year, told the Dhaka Tribune that he had paid a “huge sum of money” to the district administration to get the lease.
“Our rivals might have done this to sully our image and cause us to suffer losses,” he said. Harish later added that the blasts could also have been the act of a criminal group.
But sceptical that a militant attack would result in such little damage, Harish said if a militant group wanted to do serious harm, it could have done so.
As many as three thousand people visit the fair, even at night.
“It was definitely the act of local people,” he added.
Harish is allegedly embroiled in a bitter conflict with last year’s fair lessee, Latif Islam.
Contacted, Latif told the Dhaka Tribune that it would not be wise to comment on the case while the investigation was under way.
’It cannot be the act of a militant outfit’
Temple authorities also played down speculation that the fair had been targeted by terrorists.
“It cannot be the act of a militant outfit. It is clear that someone who wanted to foil the purity of the fair did it,” temple caretaker Surendra Nath Ray told the Dhaka Tribune.
This is the first incident of violence in nearly three centuries that the Rash Mela has been celebrated at Kantaji temple, he said.
The exquisite temple, one of the finest examples of the terracotta-relief decoration typical of late Mughal-era temples, was constructed between 1704 and 1752.
Temple cashier Apon Chandra Ray, who has worked there for nearly two decades, also pinned responsibility for the attack on the “greediness of people who want to destroy the business that has grow up around the temple.”
Temple authorities said while people of all creeds and classes normally visit Rash Mela, only Hindus were still coming after Saturday’s bomb blasts.
Fairground businessman Nazrul Islam said: “Every year we make a huge profit at the month-long fair, but this year we may end up going home empty-handed.”
Ruhul Amin, Dinajpur superintendent of police, told the Dhaka Tribune that the police had not yet determined the motive for the attack. “We are looking into the Mela organisers’ relations as well as into other issues.”
A six-member committee has been formed to assist with the investigation, headed by Manjur Mawla, sub-inspector of the district special branch.
“We are looking at every angle, including militant involvement, sabotage and personal conflicts,” Manjur said.
Police have interrogated six people but say they still do not have any leads.
All six have since been released, investigating officer Sub-Inspector (SI) Ahsan of Kaharole police station told the Dhaka Tribune.
SI Ahsan said police investigators had recovered a cell phone motherboard connected to wires, a fragment of a cell phone and a battery from the blast site. “We are investigating and analysing all of the evidence but cannot comment at the moment.”
“Primarily, we are placing maximum priority on the internal relations of the lessees,” he added.
Sujon Sarker, assistant police superintendent of Birganj circle, said additional law enforcers had been deployed to the area.
’Please save me … I cannot bear it’
At Dinajpur Medical College Hospital yesterday, the Dhaka Tribune found one of the victims of the Kantaji Temple bombing crying out in agony.
“Please save me, it is unbearable, I cannot bear it any more,” Sadhon Kumar Sarker, one of six victims being treated at the college hospital, cried out as he lay on the hospital bed. His tearful wife Pallabi Sarker was sitting beside him.
She told the Dhaka Tribune: “I do not know what will happen to us ... Sadhon works in a brick field and we live on his small income. If he does not recover soon, then I do not know how we will survive.”
The tendons in Sadhon’s legs were badly damage in the blasts. Doctors have operated on him but say the recovery may be slow.
Dr Khondokar Md Sohel Ullah, associate professor of surgery at the hospital, told the Dhaka Tribune that three of the victims of the blasts had had their arms or legs broken and the other three were suffering from tendon injuries. “Their lives were spared but it will take time for them to get better.”
The Dhaka Tribune yesterday found attendance at the Rash Mela sparse, with a just a trickle of visitors, mostly journalists and policemen, moving about.
The blast took place two weeks after the Rash Mela began. The fair is one of the biggest earning sources for the people of Kaharole upazila.
Performances by the circus and the jatra, or folk theatre, have temporarily been suspended for security reasons.
Very early Saturday, three bombs went off inside the tent housing the jatra show at the Rash Mela inside the Kantaji Temple premises, leaving 10 people hurt, six critically.
