‘Hoax’ bomb threat shuts DSE
June 29, 2009
An apparently hoax bomb threat forced the Dhaka Stock Exchange to shut down an hour earlier than the scheduled close of trading on Monday, an official said.
Authorities halted transactions at 1:15pm and then evacuated the building.
A public relations official at the country’s prime bourse told bdnews24.com that the bomb threat was made over phone at about 11:15am from an anonymous caller that the stock building will be blown off soon.
The caller said that a bomb had been kept inside the building, according to the official, who declined to be named.
Different law-enforcing agencies including a joint bomb squad of RAB and the Detective Branch of police are searching the building, the Motijheel police chief said.
“We took necessary steps as soon as we got the call from DSE authorities. RAB and police are searching the building,” Selim Sazzad told bdnews24.com.
He said that the DSE authorities had told them that the unknown caller said that the bomb would go off by 2pm.
A high official of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said that the bomb threat was a hoax.
“I was there until 2 pm…it’s clear that it was an attempt to create panic,” deputy commissioner of Motijheel Zone, Khandaker Mohiduddin, told bdnews24.com.
He also said that they had an idea of the people behind the bomb threat.
“The matter is being investigated.”
The indices on the Chittagong Stock Exchange slumped on the news of the bomb threat.
Security has been scaled up at the port city bourse following the news, according to a CSE official who asked not to be named.
Source: bdnews24.com
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