The Bidhannagar police were on Monday thrown into a tizzy when a blast took place close to the CRPF camp at Salt lake City on the northern fringes of Kolkata.
The explosion occurred in a corner of an empty bus stand at about seven in the evening, police said.
The timing and place of the explosion assume significance against the backdrop of the October 2 Burdwan blast that killed two Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorists and exposed a trans-border plan to assassinate Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and its Opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
What put the police brass on high alert was the fact that all the Burdwan blast accused in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) were currently lodged at the Salt lake-situated CRPF third Signal Battalion camp from where the Central Intelligence agency was also functioning.
The blast took place a day after Sajid the Burdwan mastermind was arrested from near the NSI International Airport. In a significant development, the arrested JMB mastermind told investigators that he had plans to set up a base in Sahebganj in Jharkhand besides Birbhum, Nadia and Malda in West Bengal apart from the existing modules in Burdwan and Murshidabad.
Meanwhile, the NIA on Monday arrested sixth conspirator in the ongoing Burdwan blast probe Amjad Ali Sheikh from Birbhum in West Bengal.
Talking about Monday’s blast Bidhannagar Commissioner of Police Rajiv Kumar said: “The guards at the CRPF office heard a loud explosion and informed the police. Though the reason for the explosion is not known, prima facie the smell and the residue do not point to any IED explosion.”
Even though, no one was injured in the blast, police are taking the matter “very seriously and forensic experts have been called to collect samples” DC, Detective Department KP Barui who was also present on the spot said. “Though a metal plate at the empty bus stand got twisted, the intensity of the blast does not seem to be very high” another official said adding the police had cordoned off the area.
Meanwhile, the NIA on Monday arrested Amjad Ali Sheikh from Birbhum in West Bengal. Sheikh carried a reward of Rs10 lakh on his head and was instrumental in procuring explosive chemicals and supplying them to co-conspirators for fabricating IEDs.
Amjad Ali Sheikh, who was part of the top leadership of JMB in India and one of the main conspirators in the case, fled to Delhi on October 8, soon after the blasts. After staying for some days in the National Capital, he then travelled to Basti in Uttar Pradesh where he was provided shelter for a few days by a State police personnel. He finally went back to West Bengal where he was nabbed by the agency.
Sheikh, the sixth person to be arrested in the case, was working with a Kolkata-based medical firm which deals with manufacturing of various sterilization products. He used his employment with the firm to procure many restricted acids including ‘Picric acid’ used for triggering an explosive device.
Soon after the blasts at a house in Khagragarh in Burdwan, the NIA had raided his Kolkata house and recovered receipts and vouchers related to purchase of chemicals used for making IEDs.
Sheikh, 30, is a resident of Kazi Market, Kirnahar, Birbhum. “Investigations have revealed that he was associated with top JMB commanders who were running jehadi training modules in two madrasas of West Bengal,” NIA said in a statement after his arrest.