Cluelessness about previous bomb attacks makes way for latest one

The Saturday’s bomb blast was the result of law enforcers’ apparent “failure” to find any clue behind the previous four such terrorist attacks on police in the capital, according to security experts.  

“The kind of strategy police have adopted cannot wipe out militancy,” security analyst brigadier general (rtd) M Sakhawat Hossain told The Business Standard.

The involvement of common people is very much essential, he added.

Officials at the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit declined to make any comment over their investigation on the four recent attacks 

They are yet to make any remarkable progress in the investigation into any of the four cases till date. 

No one was arrested. Police could not identify anyone even after scrutinising many CCTV footages.

However, on Sunday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman Miah again claimed to have ‘progressed’ in the investigation.

Earlier, local and foreign intelligence agencies warned law enforcement agencies of terrorist attacks targeting police personnel. There were several such attempts.

According to police sources, Neo-JMB, a module of the banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, also a follower of Islamic State (IS), have announced to renew their Bay’ah (loyalty) to IS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

A CTTC official said they suspect that the Neo-JMB pledged to work with the IS founder. 

Different other terrorist outfits also renewed their Bay’ah to the IS through video message from different parts of the world, confirming that they are holding the same ideology and working locally, said the CTTC official.

Later, local intelligences warned law enforcers of militants attacks. 

But, ultimately, law enforcers could not prevent the Islamist terrorist attacks and the country had to witness several bomb attacks on police and their vehicles.

Bomb was more powerful, remote-controlled 

The bomb blasted in the capital’s Science Laboratory intersection at Saturday night was more powerful with built-in splinters, compared to the previously seized ones from the capital’s Khamarbari and Paltan area.   

The CTTC, the DMP’s special unit dedicated to prevent militant activities, confirmed the matter to The Business Standard.

The bomb was kept on the road just before its blast in a convenient time and it was a remote-controlled one, said an additional deputy commissioner from the Bomb Disposal Unit of the CTTC.

“Someone or a group might have planted the bomb covering it with a black bag close to the traffic police box,” another source from the unit said.

They suspect it was operated by someone with a remote control. The suspect blasted the bomb from the nearby place of the incident and escaped, the sources added.  

Seeking anonymity, a police official said, “The bomb might be made by less-skilled JMB members as experienced ones are in jail now.”

“This is one of the reasons for less causalities in this incident,” he added.

Earlier on July 23 midnight, police have disposed two ‘bomb-like objects’ at Paltan intersection and Khamarbari’s Bangabandhu Chattar in the capital.

Before the incident, on May 26, two persons, including a female police official, were hurt as unidentified people hurled a crude bomb on a police vehicle at the Malibagh intersection at night.

And on April 29 in the evening, three persons, including two traffic constables and a community policeman, were injured in a bomb attack in Gulistan area.