Police tight-lipped, locals suspicious

Anwar Ali, राजशाही

Police are still tight-lipped about the investigation into Thursday's bomb blasts in Dinajpur, which raised suspicion among locals।
The local people wonder how the Jamaatul Mujahideen, an Islamist outfit, operated in Dinajpur for long despite the presence of detectives and police and the recent army-led Operation Clean Heart.
"We are doing our best but don't want to reveal our findings for the sake of investigation," said Superintendent of Police SM Kamal Hossain.
Seven powerful bombs went off in a tin-shed in Gurgola, Dinajpur, on February 13, leaving five people injured.
Meanwhile, three persons arrested in connection with the bomb blasts were sent to the joint interrogation cell in Dhaka yesterday.
Earlier, police produced Faruk Hossain and Habibur Rahman, teachers of the Hazrat Ayesha Siddiqa Islamia Salafia Madrassah, and 22-year-old Badal before a first class magistrate's court that granted a ten-day remand for them each.
The madrassah teachers might have named some of the ruling alliance high-ups as patrons of the Islamist outfit, said a policeman on condition of anonymity.
Police are yet to trace the two injured members of the organisation, who fled after Thursday's explosions.
The two went into hiding after they had undergone treatment at the Rangpur Medical College Hospital (RMCH) for eight hours, said sources in the hospital.
A group of five brought the two to Rangpur town in a white microbus and took them to the Desh Clinic. Later, they were admitted to the RMCH at around 10:45am.
The hospital registered them as Abu Bakkar, 25, son of Enayetur Rahman and Tariqul, 40, son of Abul Hossain.
They were kept on the third floor under the unit No. 3 of the surgery ward No. 10.
Hospital records say their injuries were from bomb blasts. But Abu Bakkar and Tariqul told on-duty doctors that they sustained burns from a gas cylinder blast.
The madrassah teacher, Faruk, is the ringleader of the outfit that has about 25 activists and several hideouts.
Other leaders Kari Mohammad Obaidullah, Kaji Shahidullah and Anwar Sadat also went into hiding.
Shahid Shukrana, officer-in-charge (OC) of the Kotwali Police Station, believes the group was involved in explosives trade. Some 500 empty bottles were recovered from the tin-shed, he said.
The Dinajpur explosions are not isolated and all bomb blasts in the country are interlinked, said the local Awami League lawmaker, Mustafizur Rahman.
Leaders of the district Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) declined to comment.
The amir of the district Jamaat-e-Islami, Aftab Uddin Mollah, said his party has no link with the bomb explosion.