2 youths seen on nearby tin-shed

About 25 minutes before the blasts on the Hossaini Dalan premises, a minor boy saw a youth handing a bag over to another youth over the wall of a tin-shed building about 150 yards away from the main entrance.

An official of Hossaini Dalan yesterday told The Daily Star that the ten-year-old boy, who was a child volunteer on duty at the exit point close to the graveyard, had shared this with his mother two or three hours after the attack.

Asked why they did not pass this information to law enforcement agencies, the official, wishing anonymity, said they did not want the boy to go through police questioning as he was already traumatised.

The blasts that killed one and injured about 100 others took place around 1:30am on Saturday when a large crowd of the Shia Muslim community were about to bring out the Tazia procession to mark the holy Ashura in Old Dhaka.

As there were strong checks at the main entrance, the attackers may well have entered the Hossaini Dalan compound from the poorly lit back side where the graveyard is located, he said.

Explaining the boy's deferral of passing the information to them, the official said the little boy could not have imagined that the youths were going to carry out the heinous attack.

The official also told this correspondent that a youth had come to visit Hossaini Dalan three days before the attack.

“Now we realise that the youth who visited Hossaini Dalan on the night of October 20 and videoed different locations on his mobile phone, had a plan,” he said.

“But when I saw him stealthily filming, trying to hide his mobile phone under one of his arms, I enquired of him why he was doing this. Without going deep into the matter as we're very busy, I asked him to refrain from doing so and left the area,” he said.

After examining the CCTV footage, investigators said they had seen two figures throwing the explosives but the figures could not be recognised as the area was poorly lit.

Detectives suspect there was a link between the blasts at Hossaini Dalan and the killing of ASI Ibrahim Mollah.

Talking to The Daily Star, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said the IEDs (improvised explosive devices) found at the blast site are exactly the same as those recovered recently from Kamrangirchar area on information from Masud Rana, one of the accused in the Ibrahim Mollah killing.

"The parts, size, and even the containers of the unexploded grenades found at Hossaini Dalan are similar to those recovered from Kamrangirchar,” he said.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Ibrahim Mollah was stabbed to death by a youth on October 22 at a checkpoint in Gabtoli when a police team was frisking the young man's bag.

The assailant, identified as Kamal, 24, is a former president of Bogra's Adamdighi upazila unit of Islami Chhatra Shibir, said Monirul Islam adding that he may have more of these IEDs in his possession.