Powerful Explosion Rips Through Keraniganj Madrasa, Four Injured

A powerful explosion occurred at a madrasa building in Keraniganj, Dhaka, leaving four people, including women and children, injured. Several room walls of the madrasa’s single-storey building were blown off in the blast. Police recovered cocktails, chemical substances, and various bomb-making materials from the scene.

The explosion took place on Friday (26 December) afternoon at the single-storey building of Ummal Qura International Madrasa in the Hasnabad area of South Keraniganj.

Local residents said a loud explosion suddenly occurred in the afternoon. Within moments, the surrounding walls of the building were blown away. The walls of two rooms of the single-storey building collapsed completely, and cracks appeared in the roof and beams.

Cracks were also found in two adjacent rooms. In addition, the wall and windows of a neighbouring building were partially damaged.

A man named Afsar Uddin said that around 50 students studied at the madrasa. However, since Friday was a weekly holiday, the madrasa was closed at the time.

As a result, a major loss of life was avoided.

In the incident, madrasa director Sheikh Al Amin (32), his wife Asia Begum (28), and two of their three children — Umayet (10) and Abdullah (7) — were injured. Among the injured, the wife and two children were first taken to a local hospital. Later, doctors on duty referred them to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for advanced treatment.

It is learned that madrasa activities were conducted in three rooms on one side of the building.

On the other side, the director Sheikh Al Amin had been living with his family in one room for the past three years.

A resident of the neighbouring building, Humayun Kabir, said that some parts of their building cracked due to the explosion. Furniture inside the house was also damaged.

Another local resident, Zakir Hossain, said, “I was parking my car in the garage and heading home when the explosion suddenly occurred. Bricks fell from above and hit my head. I then lost consciousness. Local people took me to the hospital, where I received treatment and recovered.”

House owner Parvin Begum said, “For the past three years, Mufti Harun had been renting my house to run the madrasa. Harun assigned his brother-in-law Al Amin and Al Amin’s wife Asia to manage the madrasa, and he used to visit occasionally. I regularly checked on them, but I could not understand what activities were going on behind the madrasa. Today, I came and saw that the surrounding walls of the building had been blown away. Police recovered chemicals, cocktails and bomb-making equipment from inside the building.”

Officer-in-Charge (OC) of South Keraniganj Police Station, Saiful Alam, said that the bomb disposal unit worked at the scene. Cocktails, flammable substances, and various equipment were recovered from the site. A general diary (GD) has been filed at the police station regarding the incident. At the same time, the crime scene unit and bomb disposal unit are working to determine the actual cause of the explosion.