Many injured in twin blasts in navy mosques

Several bombs exploded in two mosques in Chittagong naval base during Juma prayers on Friday, leaving more than a dozen people injured.
Investigators detained two civilian staff in this connection.
Police investigators said that a batman was caught red-hand with explosives while a caddie serving in the restricted area was detained after the explosions took place in the two mosques located within a quarter kilometre distance.
‘We suspect that the attacks have been carried out by the little-trained activists of JMB [banned Islamist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh] as they want their publicity by carrying out such attacks in restricted areas,’ said Chittagong Metropolitan Police commissioner Abdul Jalil Mondal.
He said, ‘They are trying to create panic and nothing else as they [suspected JMB] did in different areas in recent time.’
This was the second attack on military establishments in the country. On November 10, an assailant hacked Military Police Lance Corporal Samidul Islam at a checkpoint at Kachukhet at Dhaka Cantonment.
The Inter Services Public Relations on Friday, in a statement, said that five/six people were ‘slightly injured’ in the ‘twin explosion’ in the mosques in the Bangladesh Naval Base Isa Khan where ‘outsiders’ also usually offered prayers.
The statement read that the injured were released after first aid treatment.
It also said that ‘a man’ was detained with a few more explosives and ‘necessary interrogation and investigation are underway.’
Police investigators, however, said that they had so far found 13 bombs at the crime scene.
Following the explosions, the naval authority imposed further restriction on movement while assistant chief of naval staff Rear Admiral AMMM Awrangjeb Chowdhury, among others, from Dhaka flew to the spot.
Apart from the Naval Police, Criminal Investigation Department, Rapid Action Battalion and Police Bureau of Investigation launched investigations into the attacks.
Chittagong Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner (port division) Harunur Rashid said that the attacks were carried out simultaneously at the two mosques in Patenga base at about 2:00pm.
The ‘grenade-type’ bombs were detonated inside the mosques during the Juma prayers, he said.
Harun said that undetonated bombs were recovered from the scenes and Rapid Action Battalion members disposed of them.

Bangladesh Navy, Chittagong map.

‘Six bombs — four at Base Isa Khan Mosque and two at another mosque — were exploded by insiders,’ said Police Bureau of Investigation additional special superintendent Miah Jahid Hossain.
‘No grievous injuries were reported as low intensity explosions were carried out by apparently amateurs,’ he said.
‘According to a list at the hospital, 25 people received treatment at the base hospital following the attack. The injured sustained multiple injuries in their bodies,’ Jahid said after visiting the hospital.
The police investigators said the naval authorities handed over civilian staff Abdul Mannan, 22, and Ramjan, 19, to the battalion.
‘We do not want to disclose anything about them right at the moment,’ said RAB-7 deputy commander Major Mohammad Jahangir Alam.
The ISPR did not disclose identities of injured people, while police investigators said both officers and rankers were among the injured.
The country witnessed over two dozen attacks on religious minorities and their establishments, foreign nationals and security apparatuses since the assailants shot dead an Italian aid worker in the capital’s Gulshan area on September 28.
A similar prayer-time attack in a Shia mosque in Bogra left one killed and three injured on November 27, one month after miscreants carried out attack on Shia headquarters in Dhaka on October 24.
Investigators accused the banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh for most of the attacks.

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