Dummy Explosive Recovered from US Embassy: Security guard staged it for reward: police

The recovery of a bag with a dummy explosive from US embassy earlier this month was staged by a security guard of the embassy, police said yesterday.

Two youths supposedly threw a "black bag" at a security guard of the embassy following an altercation and ran away on December 2. Later, the bomb disposal unit of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan police found a matchbox, a cup wrapped with black tape, some wire and a knife inside the bag.

Law enforcers yesterday said the whole incident was staged by security guard Zakir Hossain Mollah, who apparently did it for reward.

Seeking anonymity, an official of CTTC said the bag was kept there by Zakir himself.

"He wanted reward from the authorities," the official said, adding that earlier in 2015, Zakir had received 'Guard of the Year' award for recovering a crude bomb from the premises during the political unrest going on at the time. 

Zakir was sent to jail yesterday after police produced him before a court showing him arrested under section 54.

According to police, law enforcers were looking at the footage of closed-circuit cameras installed at the embassy where they saw a security guard opening the window of the guard's room, removing the curtain and throwing the bag.

Zakir was on duty at the station at that time.

Later, during interrogation, Zakir, who has been working at the US embassy for 17 years as an employee of a security agency, admitted his involvement.