Unidentified miscreants today hurled homemade bombs at the house of a Christian family in western Bangladesh, injuring two persons, amid a string of Islamist attacks on minorities and secular activists in recent weeks.
The attackers stormed the house of 45-year-old cattle trader Alam Mondol in Chuadanga around midnight while he was sleeping in the veranda, said Liakat Hossain, officer-in- charge of Damurhuda police station. They also hurled a crude bomb targeting Mondol which left him injured.
Hearing the sound of the explosion, villagers in the neighbourhood rushed to the spot and tried to chase the miscreants but they exploded more homemade bombs and managed to escape. Some reports said that the blasts injured another person also.
Later, police visited the spot and Mondol was admitted to a hospital.
Police, however, described the incident an "act of ordinary robbers".
"Our initial finding suggests that robbers raided the home and threw the homemade bomb as they failed to enter inside after midnight yesterday... We have launched a manhunt for the miscreants," Chuadanga's police chief Rabiul Hossain told PTI over phone.
He added that Mondol earned some cash yesterday after selling a few cows at a local village market.
"The robbers initially tried to break into the house and as they failed to enter they hurled the bomb which wounded Alam," the officer said, adding that Mondol was staying in the house with his father, who was unhurt.
Asked what made police to think the attack to be an attempt of ordinary robbery, Hossain said the houses of Mondol and other cattle traders were frequent targets of dacoits, who tried to snatch his money nearly two months ago as well.
Today's attack came four days after suspected Islamists hacked to death a 50-year old Hindu tailor in central Tangail as three similar murders in the past two weeks triggered international uproar over the situation in Bangladesh.
Concern is rife that religious extremism was taking hold in the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority country.
Systematic assaults in Bangladesh, especially targeting minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals and foreigners, have witnessed at least 30 killings in the past three years.
Last Saturday, a liberal professor at Rajshahi University was hacked to death by ISIS militants. Two days later, Bangladesh's first gay magazine editor was murdered along with a friend in his flat in Dhaka by Islamists.
A homegrown Islamist group Ansar Al Islam has claimed earlier attacks, identifying itself as the Bangladesh- affiliate of Al Qaeda Indian Sub Continent, while authorities have repeatedly denied presence of any foreign terrorist outfit in the country.
