Youth blasts bomb at RU check post
A youth, who came in as a freshman aspirant in Rajshahi University, exploded a bomb injuring six people at a security checkpoint on the campus yesterday.
The explosion left a policeman, a university security guard, two university female students, and two female admission seekers with shrapnel injuries.
Mojibur Rahman, a constable of Rajshahi City Special Branch, was admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital with splinter and burn injuries to his legs and right hand.
He said the youth with a backpack introduced himself as an admission seeker at the Binodpur entrance to the university around 9:45am.
“While checking his bag the metal detector went off. As I opened the bag, I found something wrapped in a lungi,” Mojibur told The Daily Star.
The youth in a flash snatched the bag from the police officer and threw it on the ground and ran away. The bomb exploded on impact.
Jannatul Ferdous Tania, a second-year sociology student, Fahima Anik, second-year student of geography and environmental science; admission seekers Mosammat Reshmi of Shingra in Natore, Mushfika Rahman of Sundarganj in Gaibandha, and university security guard Nazrul Islam received minor injuries and were treated at the medical centre of the university.
“It was a locally made bomb,” said Proloy Chichim, deputy commissioner (East) of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.
The blast sent a wave of panic among admission seekers and their guardians forcing the authorities concerned to beef up security measures on the campus.
The bomb went off just after the beginning of admission tests for the 2013-14 academic session. The exams for 3,601 spots in 49 departments of the university were supposed to continue for five days, university Proctor Prof Tariqul Hasan told The Daily Star.
Meanwhile, locals and nearby shop owners of Binodpur, who had witnessed the explosion, expressed their suspicion that activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the pro-Jamaat student body, might have been behind the attack.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan of the university told The Daily Star, "It [the attack] might have been a part of the ongoing violence across the country."
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