Boy's alert averts tragedy

Nashik, Sep 11 (UNI) An alert sounded by an 8-year-boy leading to recovery of an improvised explosive device (IED) averted a major tragedy in a thickly populated area of the city this evening.

Placed in front of a hospital at Mirajkar ground on Nagji-Wadala road on Mumbai-Agra highway here, the IED, with a timer, concealed in a plastic bag was, however, defused by police bomb disposal squad, Bhadrakali police station said.

Aware of the serial bomb blasts in Malegaon town of the district, the boy, on finding some wires protuding from the bag, immediately alerted elders who, in turn, informed the police.

Police immediately rushed a bomb disposal squad with a sniffer dog to the site, who safely defused the IED. Fire fighters were also stationed at the site as a precaution, while police were deployed in strength to keep a big crowd of onlookers at a distance. Poeple in houses in the periphery of the ground watched the bomb defusal from the roof-tops and balconies.

Meanwhile, Malegaon police today released sketch of another suspect involved in the Friday's blasts which claimed 31 lives and left nearly 300 people wounded in the poor and predominantly Mulsim town.

Yesterday, police had issued sketches of two suspects based on the information provided by a cycle dealer and witnesses in the Hamidiya mosque outside which three blasts occured in the Bada Kabirstan, the burial ground. Fourth blast shattered lives in Musharwat chowk.

Police have arrested one person but were interrogating several others to find clues to culprits.

UNI AKS-JM SA VD HS2012