One person was blown into smithereens and quite a few others injured when a stockpile of bombs kept in an anganwadi centre at lokpur went off in the wee hours of Thursday, police said.
The blast was so intense, that the whole building collapsed under its impact and large shreds of concrete were blown away more than a hundred feet away, sources said. Some nearby houses were also damaged due to the blast.
This is the fourth such blast in the area in the past one year or so. “We have demanded an NIA probe into the incident as there is more that meets the naked eye, a local reluctant to share his name, said. The police however ruled out any bigger conspiracy saying what went off, was only a stockpile of crude bombs.
A blast had killed two persons on January 15 at Dubrajpur in the same district even as they were making bombs apparently to be used in the just-concluded elections. The police subsequently recovered a huge amount of ammunition from the spot.
Similarly two persons were left dead at the same lokpur in February this year and some others were injured when a stock-pile of bombs kept inside a Trinamool Congress panchayat member’s house went off. Among the dead were the panchayat member himself.
A Trinamool Congress member and his wife were killed in a bomb blast in a village near Bolpur town in May last year when crude bombs kept inside their house went off.
Bengal has been under the NIA scanner since the October 2 blast in 2014 when two Bangladeshi terrorists were killed while making bombs. They had rented a house belonging to a local Trinamool leader. Initially the police had ruled the blast out as one triggered by the local goons and things became clear when the NIA stepped in.
Blasts had been taking place in many districts of Bengal. A dreaded explosion allegedly at a cracker factory killed 16 persons at Pingla in West Midnapore in 2015.
Not only in the interior areas but also back in the Khiderpore area of Capital Kolkata the police last Monday busted a bomb-making factory.
Following a tip-off the police unearthed a gun factory along with gun powder, a black bag a few mobile chips and circuits.
On Thursday the villagers of lokpur demanded an NIA investigation alleging “we are living in great agony. Outsiders come to the village and go silently. They work suspiciously with political backing. There is a need that the NIA takes these cases up.”