West Bengal bombs: NIA probe will go beyond train blast

The probe by the National Investigating Agency into the Krishna-Sealdah train blast in which 17 persons were killed is likely to open up a can of worms.

This blast was yet another incident which showed how easily bombs are being made and hurled in West Bengal.

The NIA which was handed over the probe yesterday has its task cut out. While the Burdwan probe opened up a can of worms, the train blast will also do pretty much the same.

Hush-Hush investigation:

The West Bengal police have been particularly slow in reacting to such incidents. They had a similar slow reaction when the Burdwan episode was first reported. Most of the blasts in West Bengal are being passed of as minor episodes and brushed off as results of political rivalry.

NIA officials say that they had come across similar reactions during the Burdwan probe as well. There was absolutely no cooperation at first and each one was trying to pass it off as a small incident, the officer pointed out. Every blast that takes place in West Bengal has a larger picture behind it and hence it becomes necessary to probe deep so that these bomb factories can be shut down.

The NIA's probe into the train blast will focus on the larger picture. The very fact that these persons sourced a bomb and even carried it inside the train is something that needs to be pondered into, the NIA official pointed out.

Preparing a list of bomb factories:

During the Burdwan probe, the NIA had found that the bombs were being prepared locally. These bombs were meant to be transported to Bangladesh in a bid to target the Sheikh Hasina regime.

Burdwan is just a tip of the ice berg and once the NIA decides to dig deeper it would easily find that under the garb of manufacturing crackers, crude bombs are being prepared.

There is a high demand for bombs in West Bengal and if one notices closely most of the political fights have taken place by hurling bombs.

The NIA had found that the demand for crude bombs is extremely high in West Bengal. The demand for crude bombs by political parties has led to the entire security mechanism in the state turning a blind eye to the bomb factories. The NIA during the course of its investigation would go into all these aspects and try and find the root cause for the problem.

The Krishna-Sealdah train bomb blast:

The NIA has been handed over the probe into the Krishna-Sealdah train blast case. Investigations conducted by the West Bengal CID show that the incident was a result of a scuffle between two groups.

The eye witness accounts that were taken into consideration showed that two groups got into a scuffle and began hurling bombs at each other.

These persons were carrying explosives with them. However, during the course of the journey some miscreants entered into an altercation which prompted the other group to retaliate by hurling crude bombs, preliminary investigations also found.

Eye witness accounts also suggested that some of these men were carrying weapons with them.