A crude bomb exploded outside the head office of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus, in Dhaka's Mirpur on Monday, police said. “Two miscreants on a motorcycle arrived and hurled the crude bomb in front of the road of the Grameen Bank at around 3.45 am,” a police official said. “Nobody has been arrested yet, but by now we have launched a campaign to track down the miscreants,” the officer-in-charge of Mirpur police station told reporters.

The attack was one of the many instances of sporadic violence that have hit Dhaka amid brewing tensions in Bangladesh's political landscape. Early on Monday, unidentified men also exploded improvised bombs in front of a business outlet of one of Yunus' advisers and set two buses ablaze in the capital. Police said no casualty was reported in the attacks in front of Grameen Bank and the Prabartana — a business owned by fisheries and livestock adviser Farida Akhter.

Yunus, who is currently the Chief Adviser of the interim Government, founded the Grameen Bank in 1983 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work in poverty alleviation and the empowerment of poor women through it. According to police, the explosions in Prabartana at the Mohammadpur area occurred around 7:10 am, when two motorcycle-borne miscreants “hurled the crude bombs in front of the establishment, both of which exploded with loud bangs.”

One of the crude bombs also landed inside the premises of the outlet. Meanwhile, police said “unidentified miscreants” also exploded crude bombs at two places in the city's posh Dhanmondi area. Motorcycle riders detonated two bombs near Ibn Sina Hospital, said to be run by Jamaat-e-Islami, and another two in front of a major crossing. Separately, a 50-year-old man, “listed gangster,” was shot down in front of a hospital in the old part of Dhaka hours later.

Police said they were looking for clues to identify his assailants. He had narrowly escaped an attack in 2023, three months before which he was released on bail after spending 26 years in prison, The Daily Star newspaper reported. The incidents came as police escalated their vigil, staging security drills across the city ahead of November 13, when Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) is set to fix the date for handing its verdict against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina after trial in absentia.

The ICT-BD prosecution team demanded Hasina's capital punishment, particularly for her attempts to ruthlessly tame last year's violent student-led street protest dubbed the July Uprising, which toppled her Awami League regime. The Bangladesh capital has been witnessing frequent flash marches for the past several months when Hasina's now disbanded Awami League activists suddenly appear on the streets, stage processions and then disperse. Police said they arrested over 3,000 activists of the “banned party” until last month, and the figure increased as raids were carried out every day to arrest more.

workers protest over unpaid wages

Dhaka: About 100 Bangladeshi workers who were employed by Malaysian companies rallied Monday to demand unpaid wages, fair compensation and an end to alleged abuse by Malaysian employers. The Migrant Welfare Network, a Bangladeshi migrant group based in Malaysia and Bangladesh, organised the protest at the

Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka. The demonstrators said the event was organized to protest what they say is widespread mistreatment of migrant workers in Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia's richest nations. They demanded unpaid wages and compensation for 431 Bangladeshi workers they said were exploited by two Malaysian companies, Mediceram and Kawaguchi Manufacturing. The Associated Press could not immediately reach the companies for comment.

Many factories in Malaysia and other Southeast Asia countries rely on migrant workers, often from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal, to fill labour-intensive jobs in manufacturing, plantations or construction. Local workers usually avoid such jobs because of their poor conditions and low wages. The Migrant Welfare Network urged Bangladeshi and Malaysian authorities and international buyers to take immediate action to ensure workers receive wages already owed, fair compensation and “justice for systemic abuses.”