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A suspected improvised explosive device (IED) concealed inside a pressure cooker was recovered and safely defused outside a tea stall in Ashulia on the outskirts of the capital, police said.
The device was found in front of a tea stall in the Charabag area under Ashulia Police Station on Friday night. It was later neutralised by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Bomb Disposal Unit.
According to police, an unidentified man had left the pressure cooker, concealed inside a bag, outside the tea stall several hours before it was discovered.
Ashulia Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) said the suspicious object was recovered from the shopfront before the DMP bomb disposal team arrived and safely defused it.
A bomb disposal official said the device had been assembled inside a pressure cooker using ball bearings and chemical explosives, describing it as a “powerful explosive device.”
According to the official, the suspect visited the tea stall shortly after midnight on Thursday, asking the shopkeeper to exchange a Tk 500 note. When told there was no change available, he requested permission to leave the bag temporarily and then disappeared.
More than an hour later, customers became suspicious, opened the bag and found a pressure cooker wrapped in adhesive tape. They immediately alerted police.
The bomb disposal unit received the emergency call at around 1:00 am and reached the scene at about 3:00 am. The device was later taken to a nearby open field, where officers carried out a controlled explosion after digging a pit and surrounding it with sandbags.
Despite the safety measures, the blast was powerful enough to partially collapse a nearby boundary wall, officials said.
Bomb disposal experts said the pressure cooker contained a large number of ball bearings packed with explosive materials.
The exact type of explosive used will be determined after forensic examination.
The incident comes just a week after police recovered and defused another suspected pipe bomb beneath a metro rail station in Motijheel on July 24.
Authorities initially suspected it had been planted near the route of a Hindu religious procession, although the government later said there was no confirmed link between the device and the event.
Police have launched an investigation to identify the individual who left the device and determine the motive behind the incident.
