Explosion outside Pranab’s hotel in Dhaka, no injuries
5 March 2013 6:33 AM IST
Soon after President Pranab Mukherjee returned to the Sonargaon Pan-Pacific hotel, where he is staying at Dhaka, after accepting an honorary law degree from Dhaka University and visiting the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Museum in Dhanmondi, a low intensity crude cocktail bomb outside his hotel welcomed him on Monday.
Mukherjee is on a three-day visit to Bangladesh, which has coincided with a general strike called by fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami to protest the conviction of three of its top leaders for 1971 war crimes.
Mukherjee was inside the hotel when the incident took place around 2 pm at Saarc Fountain, about 100 yards away in central Dhaka, deputy commissioner of police of Tejgaon police station Chowdhury Manzurul Kabir told Indian journalists.
Apoorva Hassan, the officer in-charge of Tejgaon police station, said two persons came on a motorcycle and hurled the bomb wrapped in a cap near the Saarc fountain.
According to agency reports, Kabir said there were no casualties in the incident. He said there was no security threat to the President and the ‘cracker explosion’ was just an attempt to enforce the 48-hour strike which entered the second day.
Security has been further beefed up around the hotel. Kabir said law enforcers could not arrest anyone in connection with the incident but ‘we are trying to arrest the miscreants’.
In a statement, President’s Press Secretary Venu Rajamony said, ‘Bangladesh authorities have informed that about an hour back a crude bomb was found and they are investigating the matter.’
Mukherjee is on a three-day visit to Bangladesh, which has coincided with a general strike called by fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami to protest the conviction of three of its top leaders for 1971 war crimes.
Mukherjee was inside the hotel when the incident took place around 2 pm at Saarc Fountain, about 100 yards away in central Dhaka, deputy commissioner of police of Tejgaon police station Chowdhury Manzurul Kabir told Indian journalists.
Apoorva Hassan, the officer in-charge of Tejgaon police station, said two persons came on a motorcycle and hurled the bomb wrapped in a cap near the Saarc fountain.
According to agency reports, Kabir said there were no casualties in the incident. He said there was no security threat to the President and the ‘cracker explosion’ was just an attempt to enforce the 48-hour strike which entered the second day.
Security has been further beefed up around the hotel. Kabir said law enforcers could not arrest anyone in connection with the incident but ‘we are trying to arrest the miscreants’.
In a statement, President’s Press Secretary Venu Rajamony said, ‘Bangladesh authorities have informed that about an hour back a crude bomb was found and they are investigating the matter.’
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