Three crude bombs explode at two court premises in Jashore, the latest blasts in a week of bomb and arson attacks across Bangladesh

Three crude bombs exploded at two court premises in the southwestern Bangladeshi city of Jashore on Thursday night, injuring no one but adding to a week of bomb and arson attacks that police blame on a banned group. Two of the bombs were thrown at the boundary wall of the Jashore Judge’s Court, opposite the Jashore Press Club. The third went off inside the compound of the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court, in the area where judges park their vehicles.

Residents and passers-by ran for cover and traffic stopped for a while. Police reached both sites quickly and collected fragments of tobacco tins that they believe were used to make the devices.

What police and witnesses say

Hridoy, an easy-bike driver who was near the Civil Court intersection, told reporters he heard two loud explosions and later saw blast marks on the Judge’s Court wall. He did not see who threw the bombs. Badruzzaman Molla, the investigating inspector at Jashore Kotwali Police Station, said unidentified men threw the bombs and fled, and that an investigation was under way.

Mamunur Rashid, officer in charge of the Jashore District Detective Branch, said the attackers wanted to destabilise the country and that police were trying to identify and arrest them. M Tamal Ahmed, the district convener of the Jubo Dal, the youth wing of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party, visited the site and said a group was carrying out bomb attacks and other violence across the country to destabilise the state. He alleged that several installations in Jashore had also been hit by arson and bomb attacks. No suspect has been named and no arrest has been reported.

How the week unfolded

The Jashore blasts are the latest in a series that began on Sunday, November 8. In Dhaka, crude bombs went off near Dhaka University’s Teacher-Student Centre and outside the District Judge Court, where bystanders detained suspects. A bus was set on fire beneath the Farmgate metro station.

On Monday, November 9, a bomb exploded at about 5:50 pm on the road in front of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka’s Kotwali area. People at the scene held two 25-year-old men, Sukumar Halder and Faisal, and handed them and their motorcycle to the court’s prosecution police. A second live bomb was found there.

On Tuesday, November 10, a bus driver died when attackers set his bus on fire: Md Kalachan Sheikh, 55, was asleep in his parked bus, according to local police. More than 100 explosions were reported near the Padma Bridge toll plaza in Shariatpur during an overnight blockade, and police headquarters counted 22 vehicles set on fire nationwide in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning. Police said 33 people were arrested in Dhaka on Monday, seven bombs were recovered and two motorcycles used in the attacks were seized.

Attacks on courts and roads

1. November 8 to 9, 2026Bombs near Dhaka University and the District Judge Court; a bus set on fire at Farmgate.
2. November 9, 2026Bomb at Dhaka's CMM Court; two men held with a motorcycle.
3. November 10, 2026A bus driver dies in a bus fire; over 100 blasts at the Padma Bridge toll plaza; police name no group.
4. November 12, 2026Three bombs hit two court premises in Jashore.

Who is blamed

Police spokesman Mohammad Akhtar Hossain said on November 10 that a banned group was behind the attacks and that some of those involved were linked to it or its affiliates, and some were paid to carry them out. He did not name the group.

The BNP, which governs under Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, has accused followers of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina of trying to destabilise the country. The violence has coincided with reports that Hasina plans to come home from exile in December. She has lived in India since August 5, 2024, after a student-led uprising ended her 15-year rule, and a special tribunal sentenced her to death in 2025 for ordering a deadly crackdown on protesters. On November 9 her lawyers emailed a request for a new passport to Bangladesh’s mission in New Delhi; the government called it a “mockery” and said she must apply in person. Our earlier report covers Dhaka’s reply and its extradition request to India. Police have not linked the attacks to Hasina or her party, and there is no public evidence in these reports connecting the two.

Why it matters

Courts have now been hit three times in five days, in the capital on November 8 and 9 and in Jashore on November 12, which raises the question of how well public buildings are guarded. For ordinary people the cost has been practical: buses burned, a toll plaza on the Padma Bridge blockaded overnight and a bus driver dead. Security has been stepped up across Dhaka and intelligence operations intensified nationwide.

What happens next

Detectives in Jashore are examining the tin fragments and the court area for leads. Nationally, the next marker is December, when Hasina says she wants to return, a plan Dhaka has rejected while it presses India for her extradition. Police have given no date for naming the banned group or charging those arrested.