2.5.14

Terror strikes @ Chennai Central

Terror struck Chennai on Thursday morning with simultaneous blasts on the Guwahati Express killing a 24-year-old woman passenger and injuring 14, two grievously. The explosions occurred shortly after the train arrived from Bangalore and halted at the Chennai Central Railway Station.
No outfit claimed responsibility for the blasts that were set off on a day when the BJP’s PM pick Narendra Modi addressed a series of public meetings in southern Andhra Pradesh which shares a border with Tamil Nadu. The strike also came within 48 hours of the city police arresting a suspected ISI agent from Sri Lanka.
The explosives went off at 7.15 am in compartments S4 and S5 of the train (No. 12509), 10 minutes after it pulled into Platform 9 at Chennai Central. The train had arrived around 90 minutes behind schedule. An investigator with a central agency said two individuals who boarded the train without tickets had alighted before the train reached Chennai, but local investigators refused to confirm this.
The blasts killed Swathi Paruchuri (24), a TCS employee in Bangalore, who was heading home to Guntur, and left Sadan Chandan Dharman (64) from Tripura, and an unidentified man critically injured. The Railway police admitted the two men and 12 others to the Government General Hospital near the railway station.
One of the blasts blew open a 30-cm-wide hole in the floor of the S4 coach and a similar hole in the S5 bogie and damaged seats nearby. Blood spatter covered parts of the compartments where bombs appeared to have been planted.
Modi on Thursday addressed rallies at Madanapalli, Nellore, Guntur, Bhimavaram and Visakhapatnam, all venues except Bhimavaram on the route of the Guwahati Express. Modi was also scheduled to visit the Srikalahasti Temple, 118 km from the city, later in the day.

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