A seven-year-old child was killed and eight others were injured in Kolkata’s Dum Dum area at around 9 am on Tuesday as a powerful bomb went off. Four of the injured were stated to be critical.
Window panes in buildings several feet away from the spot were shattered, while shutters of a closed shop got twisted in the powerful impact of the explosion.
Police said it was a “low intensity” blast, with possible use of ammonium nitrate as explosive. It was also possibly a “socket bomb” – used as a crude bomb. The bomb was nearly a feet high with perhaps over 500 grams of explosives inside, sources said.
The blast took place near the office of Panchu Roy, chairman of the South Dum Dum Municipality. Police commissioner of Barrackpore, Rajesh Kumar Singh, went to the spot and examined the blast site. A bomb disposal squad of the CID reached the spot and took samples of the explosive remnants.
Several theories emerged as possible reasons for the bomb blast. It is being examined whether the blast was targetted to scare local people or someone was the target and the bomb went off accidentally.
Roy claimed that he was the target as he attends his office every Tuesday. Jyotipriya Mullick, a minister in the West Bengal cabinet, said while the Bharatiya Janata Party was making a hue and cry over Islampur, they were targeting the Trinamool Congress. The BJP state president, Dilip Ghosh, alleged that the ruling party was engaged in hooliganism.
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