Panic spreads in North Bengal after bomb recovery in Siliguri, Malda

Siliguri/Malda, Aug 26 (UNI) A day after police uncovered a plot to strike terror in Siliguri by unearthing nine bombs, panic spread in two North Bengal towns with the recovery of more bombs today.

Two Improvised Explosive Devices(IEDs) were found in a plastic bag by securitymen at Panitanki, Siliguri, some 40 km from the town in Indo-Nepal border, SSB officials said.

In Malda, police recovered five live bombs from a shed in the railway station and defused those.

Swasastra Surakha Bal (SSB) Deputy Inspector General Gyan Singh Sayana told UNI in Siliguri that three jawans on a patrol located the plastic bag planted at an important landmark. Further search revealed that two IEDs were packed inside the bag.

He said the bomb disposal squads from Siliguri police and Army in Sukna had been called for disposal of those IEDs.

The reinforcement of SSB, which guards the Indo-Nepal border, was called to cordon off the area as panic spread among the people.

The DIG said the ''red colour'' bag was noticed at about 1400 hrs by the SSB men.

This was the second such discovery in a span of 24 hours after Siliguri arrested two KLO rebels and many CID constables, who were beleived to have planted the bombs yesterday.

Meanwhile, DIG (CID) P Ravi reached here last night to investigate the crisis in Siliguri, the gateway to Northeast.

EDS:Here pick up suitably from earlier series.

UNI TEAM/PL/SRC PDM RK1850