Bhattacharjee claims external outfit behind train blast

Siliguri, Nov 28 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said the Balacoba train blast that killed eight people, was the handiwork of a major terrorist group.

Addressing a news conference here, the chief minister said though an investigation was on to probe the blast, preliminary information received by the intelligence revealed that a major group aided by a local outfit trigerred the blast on the Halibari-Jalpaiguri passenger train on November 20. He said some external outfit was behind the blast.

He said his security-in-charge and DIG Arvind Kumar Maliwal was sent to the spot of the crime (Belacoba railway station) in New Jalpaiguri this morning to investigate on his behalf.

" We failed to protect the region initially,'' he said adding that things were going out of hand, the security arrangements have to be beefed up to deter the terrorist activity", Mr Bhattacharjee said.

The chief minister said that the extremist outfit might be an international one, but it took help of a local outfit to commit the crime. Without mentioning the name of Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), the chief minister pointed a finger at this organisation as "local outfit". He also said the government was always liberal to those who wanted to join the mainstream. He explained that the KLO was being brought up by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), after the "Operation All Clear" by the Bhutanese government in 2003.

According to him, the feature of the bomb, which was used in the train blast, was totally different. He also said that the "KLO or other local outfit do not use this kind of bomb". Some external outfit was being used in this particular case, he opined.

He said he also talked to the central ministers including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home minister Shivraj Patil regarding reinforcing of paramilitary forces to combat insurgency in North Bengal.

The chief minister also visited the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital where he interacted with the injured men. About 15 blast victims were recovering at the hospital.

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