Baul hacked to death in Jessore

Unidentified miscreants exploded several crude bombs at a folk music programme in Jessore and hacked to death a Baul (folk singer) on Monday night.

The attack which also left two others injured took place around 11pm at Dumdia village under Sadar Upazila’s Deyara union, police said.

One of the injured claimed the attackers were from the same village.

The deceased was identified as Baul Moktar Hossain. The injured - ‘Sabbir’ and ‘Basir’ - were admitted at Jessore 250 Bed Hospital, said Kotwali Police Station OC Emdadul Haque.

Police had rushed the trio to the hospital as soon as they arrived at the scene, but emergency unit doctor at the hospital Kajal Mallik said Hossain was brought dead.

He might have been killed on the spot, the doctor said.

Injured Sabbir told reporters that about 10 of them were holding the folk singing programme at a mango grove at Dumdia. The attackers came around 11pm and exploded at least six crude bombs. Then they fled after severely hacking Moktar Hossain with sharp weapons.

When asked who were the attackers, another injured Basir said ‘Montu’, ‘Rustom’, ‘Asgar’, ‘Ebadul’ and several others of Deyara village were among them.

Monday night’s incident in Jessore took place after three convicted militants of outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were snatched in a dramatic ambush on a police prison van on Sunday.

A police Constable was also killed during Sunday’s incident and two others were injured.

The attack on the prison van to free the JMB militants had taken place against the backdrop of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri’s audio message where he called the Muslims in Bangladesh to start an uprising.

Nearly one and half decades ago, a bomb attack had taken place at the national conference of Udichi Shilpi Gosthi in Jessore. Investigations had later revealed that militants were behind that attack.