Police recovered a powerful bomb concealed inside a pressure cooker from an abandoned bag in front of a tea stall in Ashulia’s Charabag area and later defused the device.
Ashulia Police Station officer-in-charge of Md Tariqul Islam said the suspicious bag was found in front of the tea stall on Thursday night.
A bomb disposal team of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) later reached the spot and neutralised the device.
A member of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit’s bomb disposal team said a man came to the tea stall at night and asked the shopkeeper to break a Tk500 note.
As the shopkeeper could not provide change, the man reportedly left the bag there, saying he would return shortly.
After waiting for more than an hour, locals became suspicious of the unattended bag and opened it. They found a pressure cooker wrapped in scotch tape inside and informed police.
Members of the DMP bomb disposal unit reached the spot around 3am and recovered the device.
It was later taken to a nearby open field, where it was safely defused early Friday.
According to CTTC sources, the device was made inside a pressure cooker using a large number of ball bearings and chemical substances.
The unit described it as a potentially powerful bomb.
During the controlled disposal operation, the impact caused by the blast damaged a nearby boundary wall, despite precautionary measures taken by the bomb disposal team.
Police said they are investigating the incident and trying to identify the person who left the bag at the tea stall.
