‘Molotov cocktail’ thrown at puja mandap: Police yet to identify suspect

Police are still searching for the person who hurled what locals described as a Molotov cocktail at the idols of a puja mandap in the capital’s Tanti Bazar last night.
No cases have been filed yet as no one from the Tanti Bazar Puja Udjapon Committee came to the police station to lodge a complaint as of 2:30pm, Enamul Haque Khan, officer-in-charge of Kotwali Police Station, told The Daily Star.
“They were supposed to come in the morning but haven’t yet,” OC Enamul said, attributing the delay in filling of the case in this regard.
Police are yet to identify the suspect, and further investigation will rely on CCTV footage from the surrounding areas to help establish a clearer image of the perpetrator.
In a security camera footage, the puja organisers showed reporters, a man in a white shirt is seen throwing an object at the mandap and running away. It is not clear in the video what had been hurled by the man.
Puja organisers said the incident happened around 8:00pm.
Bijoy Saha, general secretary of Tanti Bazar Puja Udjapon Committee, said, “An unidentified man threw a molotov cocktail at the stage. Thankfully, the idols remain unharmed.”
Chandan Kumar Dey, president of the Puja Udjapan Committee, said the man in a white shirt threw a bottle at the mandap. “Some of our volunteers pursued him and caught him. But he stabbed them with a sharp weapon and got away.”
He added that there was probably kerosene in the bottle.
The injured, Jhontu Dhar, 45, Shagor Ghosh, 38, Khokon Dhar, 35, Dipto Dey, 26, and Ramijuddin, were admitted to Mitford Hospital, locals said. Police said the five injured men were stabbed in the limbs, throat and chest.
Law enforcers went to the scene immediately after the incident, locals said.
According to a press release from Dhaka Metropolitan Police, locals caught three muggers and handed them to police after one of them snatched a necklace from a woman beside Tantibazar Puja Mandap No. 17 around 7:30pm. The three arrestees are Akash, 23, Ridoy, 23, and Jibon, 19.
Chandan Kumar said, “It must have been an attempted sabotage. The muggers could have fled the scene. Why would they throw a bottle?”
The DMP release also said that the police recovered a bottle filled with liquid substance from the spot.
Rezaul Karim Mallik, the chief of the Detective Branch of DMP, said an object that looks like a molotov cocktail was recovered from the spot.
“We primarily learned that the bottle was filled with kerosene. But, the actual nature of the object can be confirmed after further examination,” he added.