Crude bomb is hurled at Pranab hotel, none hurt
A low-intensity crude cocktail bomb exploded Monday outside the hotel where President Pranab Mukherjee is staying during a general strike called by the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami in protest against the conviction of three of its top leaders for 1971 war crimes.
Mr Mukherjee was inside the Sonargaon Pan-Pacific Hotel when the blast occurred around 2 pm near the Saarc Fountain, 100 yards from the hotel in central Dhaka, deputy commissioner of police Chowdhury Manzurul Kabir told Indian journalists.
Apoorva Hassan, Tejgaon police station chief, said two persons came on a motorcycle and hurled the bomb wrapped in a cap. There were no casualties. He said there was no security threat to the President and the “cracker explosion” was an attempt to enforce the 48-hour strike.
Mr Mukherjee’s wife Suvra was at Gonobhaban, official residence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, at that time.
Shortly before this, Mr Mukherjee returned to the hotel after accepting an honorary law degree from Dhaka University and visiting the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Museum at Dhanmondi in central Dhaka.
Security was beefed up around the hotel, and the police said “we are trying to arrest the miscreants”.
Mr Mukherjee’s press secretary Venu Rajamony confirmed it was a “minor explosion”, and said “life in and around the hotel is completely normal”.
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