Crude bomb explosion outside Bangladesh interim chief Muhammad Yunus' Grameen bank

Dhaka: Unidentified attackers exploded improvised bombs outside the head office of Bangladesh interim government chief Muhammad Yunus' Grameen Bank overnight on Monday.

The attack was one of the many instances of sporadic violence that have hit Dhaka amid brewing tensions in Bangladesh's political landscape.

Early on Monday, miscreants also exploded improvised bombs in front of a business outlet of one of Yunus' advisers and set two buses ablaze in the capital.

Police said no casualty was reported in the attacks in front of Grameen Bank, and the Prabartana -- a business owned by fisheries and livestock adviser Farida Akhter.

“The bomb exploded in front of the Grameen Bank in the Mirpur area at around 3.45 am. Nobody has been arrested yet, but by now we have launched a campaign to track down the miscreants,” the officer-in-charge of Mirpur police station told reporters.

Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in 1983 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work in poverty alleviation and poor women's empowerment through it.

According to police, the explosions in Prabartana at the Mohammadpur area occurred around 7:10 am, when two motorcycle-borne miscreants "hurled the crude bombs in front of the establishment, both of which exploded with loud bangs." One of the crude bombs also landed inside the premises of the outlet.

Meanwhile, police said “unidentified miscreants” also exploded crude bombs at two places in the city’s posh Dhanmondi area.

Motorcycle riders detonated two bombs near Ibn Sina Hospital, said to be run by Jamaat-e-Islami, and another two in front of a major crossing.

Separately, a 50-year-old man "listed gangster" was shot down in front of a hospital in the old part of Dhaka hours later.

Police said they were looking for clues to identify his assailants.

He had narrowly escaped an attack in 2023, three months before which he was released on bail after spending 26 years in prison, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

The incidents came as police escalated their vigil, staging security drills across the city ahead of November 13, when Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) is set to fix the date for handing its verdict against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina after trial in absentia.

The ICT-BD prosecution team demanded Hasina’s capital punishment, particularly for her attempts to ruthlessly tame last year’s violent student-led street protest dubbed the July Uprising, which toppled her Awami League regime.

The Bangladesh capital has been witnessing frequent flash marches for the past several months when Hasina’s now disbanded Awami League activists suddenly appear on the streets, stage processions and then disperse.

Police said they arrested over 3,000 activists of the “banned party” until last month, and the figure increased as raids were carried out every day to arrest more.

Bangladesh army troops have been deployed for the past 15 months in aid of civil power, and last week, half of their around 60,000 personnel on policing duties were brought back to barracks for rest and training.

But the situation appeared precarious as a seven-day deadline set by the interim government for political parties to reach a consensus on the referendum on 84 reform proposals, some of which contradict the existing constitution and the implementation of the July Charter, expires on Monday.

Awami League remained absent from the political scene as the interim government disbanded the party until its leaders were “served justice,” while ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) emerged as the frontrunner with its once ally Jamaat being its main rival.

But BNP binned the government proposal for settling its differences with Jamaat through dialogue, saying it was a “government-created crisis” ahead of the planned national elections in February.