NIA starts probe into Roorkee explosion

Dehradun, Dec 8: Two days after a 12-year-old school boy was killed in an explosion in Roorkee town, Uttarakhand police have interrogated 8-10 persons even as the National Investigation Agency has started its probe into the blast.

"We have interrogated 8-10 persons from Nehru Nagar area of Roorkee where the blast took place but no significant leads have come up so far. Aided by ballistic experts, the NIA has also begun its investigation to determine the nature of the explosion," ADG (law and order) Ram Singh Meena said today.

Asked if investigating agencies saw any terror angle to the blast, he said the case is being probed from all angles and things will become clear only when the nature of the explosion is ascertained. The NIA team has visited the blast site, he said, adding that samples collected from the scene of the explosion have been handed over to them to help them determine the nature of the low-intensity blast, Meena said.

As the explosive was picked up by the boy from a garbage heap in an uncrowded area, it will have to be found out if it was an accident or there was a plot behind it, he said. The schoolboy was killed on December 6 when an object he had picked up from a roadside garbage heap went off suddenly, killing him on the spot.

PTI