Police found three bags containing live bombs inside the Falaknuma Express at Howrah station early on Wednesday, barely 48 hours before the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
A bomb disposal team, comprising officers from the Railway Protection Force and Criminal Investigation Department, used sniffer dogs to detect the bags which had five socket bombs or explosives packed in pipes measuring about 8 inch X 5 inch.
“Once the alarm was raised, security agencies rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. The bags were taken out and rushed to an abandoned area near platform number one. Apart from the pipes, the bag contained some electric wires as well,” said a senior GRP official.
Socket bombs can be of moderate intensity and the degree of explosion or destruction can depend on the quality and quantity of explosives used.
A few passengers inside compartment S2 of the Falaknuma Express, which connects Howrah and Secunderabad, noticed the abandoned bags around 2:30am on Wednesday and alerted the authorities. The train had reached Howrah at around 2am and most of the passengers had already left the station.
Police are yet to determine the nature of the explosives.
“The state is already on high alert before the Eid festival on Friday. So we are taking no risk and have summoned the CID bomb disposal team to check the contents of the pipes,” said a senior state police officer.
{{/usCountry}}“The state is already on high alert before the Eid festival on Friday. So we are taking no risk and have summoned the CID bomb disposal team to check the contents of the pipes,” said a senior state police officer.
{{/usCountry}}Senior state police officers have rushed to the spot to help the CID team in the investigation process.