City cops went on alert, set up check posts and intensified patrolling after a bomb exploded on a bustling pavement in Chandni Chowk on Friday. The blast set off a shower of splinters but no injuries were reported from the 12.30 pm explosion that triggered panic in one of the most crowded areas of the city.
Another bomb was detected and defused shortly after the blast.
Coming a day after the arrest of one of the main architects of Indian Mujahideen terror attacks, cops said they were probing the theory that it could have been a recce blast to test police responsiveness. But they believe it was most likely a fallout of some local rivalry and someone deliberately planted the bombs on the pavement to scare shop owners. “We are not worried about the intensity of the explosion, but the intention,” said an officer.
The nature of the bomb also suggested it was the work of amateurs. The bombs were packed in lunch boxes and had no circuits or timers. “It was a steel container wrapped with adhesive tape,” said an officer of Bowbazar police station. Detective department chief Pallab Kanti Ghosh said the bombs contained potassium and charcoal. The spot where the bombs were found was used by a trader, Sajid Ansar, to store old papers, say police sources.
The blast jolted the teeming mass of shoppers, commuters and shopkeepers. For a second or two, there was stunned silence. Then, on seeing smoke, people started running in panic.
Police arrived quickly and spotted burn marks on the base of a telephone distribution box, suggesting the bomb was planted there. Police found nails and ball bearings in the blast radius, but no signs of an advanced mechanism to suggest an IED, said an officer. The second bomb was found under the cigarette shop of Bikrant’s father Sanjay Shaw. This was also of low intensity — a small metal cylinder packed with shrapnel and some explosive.
Only a day ago, a bomb squad expert was killed while defusing an IED in Alipurduar, allegedly planted by the Kamtapur Liberation Organization, fighting for a separate state to be carved out of West Bengal. He wasn’t wearing a ballistic vest but the bomb experts who responded to the Chandni Chowk blast were kitted out in bomb-proof gear and searched the area with sniffer dogs.
Another bomb was detected and defused shortly after the blast.
Coming a day after the arrest of one of the main architects of Indian Mujahideen terror attacks, cops said they were probing the theory that it could have been a recce blast to test police responsiveness. But they believe it was most likely a fallout of some local rivalry and someone deliberately planted the bombs on the pavement to scare shop owners. “We are not worried about the intensity of the explosion, but the intention,” said an officer.
The nature of the bomb also suggested it was the work of amateurs. The bombs were packed in lunch boxes and had no circuits or timers. “It was a steel container wrapped with adhesive tape,” said an officer of Bowbazar police station. Detective department chief Pallab Kanti Ghosh said the bombs contained potassium and charcoal. The spot where the bombs were found was used by a trader, Sajid Ansar, to store old papers, say police sources.
The blast jolted the teeming mass of shoppers, commuters and shopkeepers. For a second or two, there was stunned silence. Then, on seeing smoke, people started running in panic.
Police arrived quickly and spotted burn marks on the base of a telephone distribution box, suggesting the bomb was planted there. Police found nails and ball bearings in the blast radius, but no signs of an advanced mechanism to suggest an IED, said an officer. The second bomb was found under the cigarette shop of Bikrant’s father Sanjay Shaw. This was also of low intensity — a small metal cylinder packed with shrapnel and some explosive.
Only a day ago, a bomb squad expert was killed while defusing an IED in Alipurduar, allegedly planted by the Kamtapur Liberation Organization, fighting for a separate state to be carved out of West Bengal. He wasn’t wearing a ballistic vest but the bomb experts who responded to the Chandni Chowk blast were kitted out in bomb-proof gear and searched the area with sniffer dogs.
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