At least five students of a local madrasah sustained burn injuries in a ‘mysterious’ explosion at its hostel at Lalkhan Bazar in the city on Monday.
Monayem Billah, station officer at Agrabad Fire Service, said the explosion took place in a room on the 1st floor of the four-storey hostel of Jamiatul Ulum Al Islamia Madrasah run by Mufti Izharul Islam, a leader of Hefajat-e-Islam, at about 11:30 am.
The entire room went up in flames following the explosion, burning down windowpanes, door and furniture and leaving five inmates injured.
The injured were identified as Aman Ullah, 26, Abdul Khalek, 27, Mohammad Abdullah, 26, Abdul Karim, 26, and Abdul Jabbar, 26. All of them are the students of the Department of Islamic Law Faculty and they used to live at the dormitory.
Being informed, firefighters rushed in and doused the flame with sand and water.
Police arrested two of the injured from Halishahar General Hospital in the afternoon. Later, they were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital under police custody.
The actual reason behind the explosion could not be known yet.
The madrassah authorities claimed that the incident occurred when an IPS machine went off with a big bang.
However, Quamrul Islam, assistant commissioner of Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said police recovered three unexploded grenades from the spot at about 5:30 pm.
Police suspected that the explosion occurred from the grenade.
CMP commissioner Shafiqul Islam and other high police officials visited the spot.
Source: UNB Connect
