Dhaka, July 17:

Three small bombs exploded at Dhaka University today , causing panic but no casualties as students tried to call a strike over the arrest of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, police said. The crude home-made devices went off near the main administrative building on the university campus, said local police chief Shahidul Islam. “We are investigating whether the explosion had any link to the strike called

by the students’ wing of the Awami League to protest the arrest of their leader,” he added.

Police said the Chhatra League, the student wing of Sheikh Hasina’s party, called a nationwide strike in the country’s educational institutions today .

Classes at Dhaka University, however, had not been affected, Islam said, adding that police had raided four campus residence halls ahead of the strike.

Several hundred students chanting pro-Awami League slogans also defied an emergency ban on political gatherings and rallies in Sheikh Hasina’s southern hometown of Gopalganj on Monday, police officer Monir Hossain said.