Besides rickshaw-pullers and pedestrians, the reckless attack in front of the high-security office of the deputy commissioner (DC) injured eight lawyers, three journalists and five law enforcers, sending shock waves throughout the country.

The dead, Agriculture Block Supervisor Abul Kashem Ali Sarker, 40, came to the DC office to draw his salary, his wife Aleya Begum said after identifying the badly mutilated body at the Gazipur Sadar Hospital morgue.

A number of lawyers were standing around in front of the DC office before joining a Bar association meeting when the bomb went off at 11:40am, witnesses and police sources said. Local lawyers use a short cut through the DC office to go to the Bar association office, they explained.

The police arrested the severely injured suicide bomber, who was in the guise of a tea-vendor, from the spot immediately after the blast. The man, who claimed to be Abdur Razzak, son of Abdul Khaleque of Chapainawabganj, said he is a JMB member and admitted to carrying out the attack.

The banned extremist outfit yesterday also issued death threats to eight local journalists, while the lawyers observing a dawn-to-dusk countrywide hartal protesting at Tuesday's gruesome bomb blast in a Bar association building froze in panic at the unrelenting ferocity.

Meanwhile, railway traffic in Gazipur was disrupted for about two and a half hours as hartal supporters halted the Mymensingh-bound 49 Balaka Express at around 11:48am and kept its driver confined until 2:10pm. The passage of two other trains through Gazipur was also delayed due to the incident.

The Bomb Strike
Security at the DC office in Rajbari area had been stepped up following threats and Tuesday's carnage. "Sixteen police and Armed Police Battalion members were stationed at the gate, the place where the bomb attack was made yesterday. They had instruction to scan the baggage and bodies of everyone entering the DC office and the court buildings," said a police official.

Several lawyers had passed through the gate and others were in queue when a tea-vendor aged around 20 years arrived there, eyewitnesses said.

They said the youth, carrying a flask in one hand and a plastic bag containing cigarette packets in the other, looked suspicious.

Al-Amin, a peon at a local court, said he suspected the youth and asked the on-duty law enforcers to check him. "He had a peculiar look in his eyes and did not seem normal," said police Nayek Belal, adding, "I asked one of my colleagues to scan him."

Advocate Nurul Amin was standing very close when the bomber was passing through the gate and a policeman challenged him. "I saw the policeman approaching the youth. But he pulled a wire attached to his body and the bomb went off," he described.

Some other witnesses, on the other hand, said they saw the youth doing something with his flask that triggered the bomb off.

The deafening explosion in the open rocked the entire Rajbari area and was heard even from several kilometres away.

Witnesses said a cloud of smoke permeated the air, while the clothes of the people standing nearby caught fire. Around 15 people seriously injured dropped on the ground, while the rest ran for life.

Fire Service and Civil Defence reached the spot and doused the fire.

SMILES THE KILLER
After the explosion, the bomber remained standing alive. He had missed his real target, which he claimed was the DC office. The police who stood nearby asked him to lie down, but he refused. "I'll kill them all, blow them off," he shouted, 'to carry out the order of Allah'.

Constable Mizanur Rahman said, "The firemen then used water jet to push him down on the ground." "I and several other policemen kept our guns aimed at him, but he nonchalantly kept his hand inside his jacket," he went on.

"Fearing that he may have another bomb inside his jacket, we warned him that he would be shot if he does not pull out his hand," said another constable, Aiyub. "But, he just gave us a smile, a smile of joy."

A police official ordered the constables not to shoot and to keep him alive. Two constables then ran and seized him. He was first taken to Gazipur Sadar Hospital and later to Orthopaedics Hospital in Dhaka.

INJURY LIST
Of the injured people, 21 were rushed to Gazipur Sadar Hospital. The hospital authorities referred the critically wounded ones to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), keeping seven.

The lawyers sent to the DMCH are Shakhawat Hossain, 28, Dewan Abul Kashem, 48, Joynal Abedin, 35, Jahangir Hossain Himu, 30, Russell, 25, Nadira Begum, 45, Nurul Amin, 40, and former president of district Bar association Nurul Amin, 60. Among them, the condition of Shakhawat and Jahangir was reportedly critical.

The three journalists injured in the blast are News Today Gazipur Correspondent Nazrul Islam Badami, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha Gazipur Correspondent Belal Hossain and local daily Ajker Janata News Editor Aminul Islam. Belal and Aminul were referred to the DMCH, while Nazrul was admitted to Gazipur hospital.

The five injured policemen are Sub-Inspector Jahangir, nayeks Bulu Rahman and Belal Hossain, and constables Akteruzzaman and Zahedul.

The rest of the wounded include engineer Abul Kalam, 40, stamp vendor Nurul Islam Molla, 40, Ruhul Amin, 35, Hossain Ali, 50, Darag Ali, 32, Ripon Sarker, 28, Abdur Razzak, 20, shopkeeper Rezaul Islam, 22, M Rafiq, 28, Ismail, 50, Swadhin, 22, Dudu Mia, 35, Shakhawat Jamil Rony, 18, and rickshaw-pullers Nazim Uddin, 40, and Jahirul Islam, 30.