Dhaka: A police officer and two others were severely injured in a blast in Bangladesh's capital claimed by the Islamic State. The explosives that lead to the blast in a police pick-up van in Dhaka's Malibagh on Sunday night might have been planted, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said on Monday.

"We think it (the explosive) was kept in the car and not hurled at the police," he stated while talking to reporters after visiting the injured victims at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Based on the primary investigation, we think it was an improvised bomb, but it was more powerful than the usual ones used," he said. Two people along with an assistant sub-inspector were injured in the explosion. The police have yet to identify the culprits.