7-yr-old killed, sister hurt in blast at home

A seven-year-old boy was killed and his elder sister suffered splinter injuries when a crude bomb exploded inside their house in Old Dhaka yesterday afternoon.

The deceased was identified as Miraj Rahman, a resident of Lalbagh.

His 10-year-old sister, Niha Akter, is undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, police said.

It is not clear how the bomb went off as the family members and the police gave different accounts of the incident.

Yakub Ali, father of the victims, told reporters at the hospital that unknown miscreants hurled a bomb at his tin-shed house around 4:30pm, leaving his kids critically wounded.

Miraj was declared dead after the siblings were taken to the hospital, he said.

In the preliminary investigation, police did not find any evidence the bomb had been thrown from outside, said Mofiz Uddin Ahmed, deputy commissioner (Lalbagh division) of DMP.

“The explosion might have occurred when the kids were playing with the bomb,” he alleged.

Their father might have links with storing bombs in the house, the DMP official added.

Police were interrogating the victims' parents to find the reason behind the blast.