The Ramna Batamul bombing was a series of bomb attacks on 14 April 2001 at a cultural programme of the

Pahela Baishakh Pohela Boishakh () is the Bengali New Year celebrated by the Bengalis, Bengali people worldwide and as a holiday on 14 April in Bangladesh and 15 April or 14 April (leap year) in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Jharkhand and Assam ( ...

celebrations arranged by Chaayanot, the leading cultural organization of Bangladesh. Ten people, including Shujan, a

Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (, HuJI) is a Pakistani Islamist extremist, fundamentalist and terrorist organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. It has been the most active in the South Asian countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indi ...

militant, died and many more people were wounded. The Islamic fundamentalist group

later confessed their involvement in the attack.

Attacks

Pohela Boishakh Pohela Boishakh () is the Bengali New Year celebrated by the Bengalis, Bengali people worldwide and as a holiday on 14 April in Bangladesh and 15 April or 14 April (leap year) in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Jharkhand and Assam ( ...

or Bengali New Year is the first day of the

Bengali calendar The Bengali Calendar or Bangla Calendar (, colloquially , or , , "Bangla Year") is a solar calendar used in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. In contrast to the traditional Indian Hindu calendar, which begins with the month Chait ...

. It is celebrated on 14 April in

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

and 15 April in the Indian states of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

as well as

Tripura Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...

by the

Bengali people Bengalis ( ), also rendered as endonym Bangalee, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of South Asia. The current population is divided between the sovereign country Bangl ...

and by minor Bengali communities in other Indian states, including

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

and

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

. On April 14 around 8:00am at Ramna Batamul, the first bomb exploded. Shortly after, there was a second blast when police were conducting evacuations and rescue operations. One policeman was injured in the second bomb explosion. Ten people lost their lives and about 50 were injured. Police also recovered another inactive bomb later. The state-owned television station BTV was broadcasting the programme live from Ramna Batamul. Because of this, people throughout the country saw the bombing attack on television. Following the incident, all cultural functions organised for New Year celebrations were postponed.

Trial

Two charges were filed by the police with the capital's

Ramna Ramna () is a thana (precinct) in central Dhaka and a historic colonial neighbourhood. Once the site of Mughal gardens, it developed into an institutional area during British rule in the late 19th century. It became a focal point for Dhaka's ...

police station: one for murder and one for illegal possession of explosives. Eight years after the bomb attack, a court in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

brought charges against Mufti Hannan, chief of banned fundamentalist group

and 13 others of this group. In 2014, eight of the accused were sentenced to death. Those sentenced included Mufti Hannan, Maulana Akbar Hossain, Arif Hasan Sumon, Maulana Tajuddin, Hafiz Jahangir Alam Badr, Maulana Abu Bakr alias Hafiz Selim Hawladar, Maulana Abdul Hai and Maulana Shafiqur Rahman. The other six, Shahadatullah Jewel, Maulana Sabbir, Shaokat Hossain alias Sheikh Farid, Maulana Abdur Rauf, Maulana Abu Taher and Maulana Yahia, were sentenced to life in prison.

Reactions

* ''The Daily Star'' in an editorial wrote "This was an attack against the very identity of the nation; it was a blow against the very belief on which the War of Liberation was fought; it was a stab at the very ethos in which we take immense pride, both collectively and as individuals".

References

2001 murders in Bangladesh 21st-century mass murder in Bangladesh Terrorist incidents in Bangladesh in 2001 Islamic terrorist incidents in 2001 Islamic terrorism in Bangladesh Mass murder in 2001 Murder in Dhaka 2001 in Dhaka Attacks during New Year celebrations Attacks on parades in Asia Improvised explosive device bombings in 2001 Improvised explosive device bombings in Bangladesh April 2001 in Bangladesh April 2001 crimes in Asia {{Bangladesh-stub