DHAKA, 12 December 2005 — A high alert has been sounded in Bangladesh to prevent any untoward incident as preparation was on full swing to celebrate 34th anniversary of its independence.
Security forces went on special alert in Dhaka yesterday after a bomb blast near the city’s diplomatic area wounded two people, police said.
Armed police and commandos of the elite Rapid Action Battalion cordoned off the area and searched vehicles and pedestrians following Saturday night’s blast.
Police said that although the bomb was small, it was “a chilling reminder” that the perpetrators of a wave of recent bomb attacks were still active.
They said security forces found a bomb in the industrial town of Narsingdi, 80 km east of Dhaka, and two other bombs at Narayanganj near the capital yesterday.
“Bombs are strewn all over the country and often we have to run right and left to recover them following tip-offs,” a police officer said.
Yesterday, police said they had detained three suspected members of the outlawed Jamatul Mujahedeen militant group in the southeast of the country and seized a large amount of bomb making materials from them. “Explosives and other materials that we seized from them would be enough to make 300 small and medium powerful bombs,” said Golam Rasul, superintendent of police in Cox’s Bazar.
The Chinese Embassy in Dhaka said it had asked all Chinese citizens in Bangladesh to “move carefully and not to go out to apparently dangerous places”.
Other foreign diplomatic missions in Dhaka had earlier issued similar warnings to their nationals in the country.
Police said they were taking extra precautions as Bangladesh prepared to celebrate the 34th anniversary of its 1971 independence war victory against Pakistan on Dec. 16.
The country is reeling from a series of attacks by suspected Islamist bombers that have killed nearly 30 people and wounded more than 150 since Aug. 17.
The victims have included judges, lawyers, police, journalists and activists.
Thousands of people joined a daylong protest yesterday in Netrokona, 360 km north of Dhaka. Eight people were killed and more than 50 were wounded in a suicide bombing in Netrokona last week.
Also yesterday, thousands of opposition political activists demonstrated in Dhaka, calling for the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. They said the government had failed to contain militancy.
