[Navarene]

This time the target is the students of DU! We are surely in a land of despair now:

At least 16 people including 12 Dhaka University (DU) students were injured as four bombs exploded in a large Valentine's Day crowd in front of the DU Teachers-Students Centre (TSC) last night, creating panic on the entire campus.
Witnesses said three bombs went off one after another just behind the Swoparjito Swadhinata sculpture at the TSC road-island at about 7:45pm when several thousand people, mostly students, were enjoying a Valentine's Day function there.

Another bomb exploded at Hakim Chattar near the central library, hardly 50 yards from the road-island, spreading a panic among the huge crowd at the TSC and the heavily-guarded Ekushey Book Fair at the Bangla Academy.

The injured are DU students Ruby, Deepa, Jahirul Islam Jewel, Rimu, Tuhin, Masum, Amit, Alamgir, Lubna Rashid, Masud, Mostafiz and Pavel, Shaheen of Jagannath College, Shahnewaj Raju of Dhaka College, Saiful Islam of World University, and Alamgir Hossain, a businessman. They were admitted to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).

Most of them were injured in their legs and hands but none was wounded critically, said doctors at the DMCH.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and the police retrieved three unexploded bombs from the spot which were defused by the police experts.


"We heard a big bang when we were enjoying a friendly debate organised on the occasion of Valentine's Day," said Zakir Hossain, a witness. "Three more blasts followed the first creating a heavy chaos and stampede."

Officials of Rab, deployed on the campus for the security of the month-long book fair, said they rushed towards the central library when the first bomb exploded there. Then came another three blasts in front of the TSC.

Police failed to arrest any-one in connection with the bomb blasts. Assistant Commissioner (Patrol-South) of DMP Mushfiqur Rahman told reporters that they did not find any clue to the explosions.


Witnesses said the huge crowd enjoying the debate organised by Dhaka University Debating Society (Duds) was dispersed within moments while the visitors at the Ekushey Book Fair became panicked by the blasts.

Abdur Rahim, general secretary of Duds, said one of the bombs went off at the corner of the debate stage and two in the audience. But none was hurt seriously because the bombs did not contain splinters.


Security has been beefed up on the DU campus. The police, Rab and other intelligence agencies were patrolling the area since the explosion.


After the incident, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) activists last night ousted all the Chhatra League (BCL) men from different dormitories of the university and ransacked dozens of rooms of the BCL activists.


INVESTIGATION
Doctors at the DMCH did not find any splinter in the bodies of the injured while the police said the bombs were made of phosphate powder.

Khan Sayeed Hassan, deputy commissioner (South) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told reporters that the attackers had left the bombs in potato-chips packs and those exploded when somebody stepped on the packs.

Examining the unexploded bombs and evidence, Hassan added: "The bombs were handmade. The attackers used local technology to make those."

Mahbubur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Ramna Police Station, told The Daily Star that they have started investigating the incident.


VC'S VERSION
DU Vice-chancellor Prof SMA Faiz while visiting the injured at the DMCH demanded exemplary punishment of the culprits involved in the attack.


"I have no words to condemn the incident," Prof Faiz told The Daily Star last night, terming the incident a 'heinous crime.'

About the security on the DU campus, he said security would be beefed up 'as much as possible'.


BLAME, COUNTER BLAME
JCD, student wing of the ruling BNP, has blamed Awami League's student front BCL for the bomb attack and demanded arrest of the culprits.

JCD brought out several processions and held a rally at the TSC island immediately after the explosions.

Sultan Salauddin Tuku, convenor of JCD Council Preparation Committee of DU, told The Daily Star last night that BCL carried out the attack to make the political situation 'unstable'.

The BCL, on the contrary, said JCD made the attack in a bid to restrain BCL from arranging processions and rallies on the DU campus.

The BCL also brought out a procession and held a rally at the foot of Aparajeyo Bangla immediately after the incident.

Liaqat Sikder and Nazrul Islam Babu, president and general secretary of BCL, in a statement said the fundamentalist groups inside the government who were opposing Valentine's Day programmes have carried out the attack.

The statement said instant procession by the JCD proves that it was a planned attack. They demanded exemplary punishment of the culprits.

Meanwhile, tension ran high among the students at different dormitories after the JCD activists ransacked eight rooms of BCL workers at Ziaur Rahman Hall.