Kolkata: Four days after a major blast at a Trinamool Congress leader’s house in Burdwan district of West Bengal, where three suspected terrorists were killed on October 2, the state government has ruled out the possibility of the involvement of Al Qaida.
While state Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee refused to divulge details about the outfit that the investigation team was suspecting, he has ruled out the possibility of the international terror group.
“Certain media reports said that posters relating to Al Qaida were found. No such posters have been found so far. Investigation is on,” the Home Secretary said. He also denied reports of non-cooperation by the state police with the national agencies and that no RDX was found at the blast site as reported in a section of media.
“I would like to deny this, senior officials of both sides are in touch, it is a far more serious matter between the Centre and the state,” he said.
“A Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) team led by assistant director has since visited the place of occurrence the very next day and they have inspected the site. Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has taken over the investigation and the DG Police has since formed a composite task force with top officials from CID, district police, Intelligence Bureau and Kolkata Police under the leadership of DIG CID,” Banerjee said.
Investigators have so far arrested three people in connection with the blast. Hafez Mollah alias Hasan, who was detained by the CID from his house on Sunday, was formally arrested on Monday, DIG (Operations), CID Dilip Adak said.
Two other women — Rajira Bibi alias Rumi from Nadia and Amina Bibi from Murshidabad — were arrested on Sunday in connection with the blast in which involvement of terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is being suspected. The police are on the lookout for a man named Abul Kalam, to whom several phone calls were made immediately after the blast.
Sources say that powerful grenades, chemicals used in making explosives, a book on how to trigger explosions, some jihadi literature, a video on jihadi training and maps of important locations in Kolkata were seized by the CID team from the house. A large number of watch dials, SIM cards and other tools required to make improvised explosive devices were also seized from the house.
“The group was certainly making powerful bombs and was trying to blast them during the Durga Puja and Eid festivities, the two biggest festivals in the state, to disturb the communal harmony. However, the bombs were triggered while being made, killing two people instantly and another later at the district hospital,” said a police official.
The state government is being blamed not only lack for police intelligence, as the suspected had rented the house a few months back, but also due to lack of preparedness against such evil forces.
“The state police is completely unprepared to handle any such forces. Not only lack of intelligence which is critical in fighting such forces, the police is not trained to investigate the issues properly, where critical evidence was lost due to manhandling of the blast site,” said an officer of the state home department.
