A crude bomb possibly lobbed from a moving vehicle on Monday exploded near a Kolkata office of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) where suspects for the October 2 Burdwan blast are being questioned, sources said.
A loud explosion was heard at around 6.45 pm at a bus stop outside the NIA camp office situated within the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) campus in Salt Lake.
Senior police officials who rushed to the spot said the explosive may have been a firecracker and that no one was injured in the incident.
“Prima facie examination does not indicate any explosive going off. But we are attaching importance to the incident since it is close to the camp,” said Rajeev Kumar, commissioner of Bidhannagar City Police.
Investigators, however, also said they would be in a better position to comment on the matter after the completion of forensic examinations on residues collected from the site.
The NIA arrested a key Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militant, Amjad Sheikh, on Monday for his role in the Burdwan blast.
“The attack may have been staged by local sympathisers of the JMB in retaliation to the NIA’s Burdwan blast probe. It will also have to be determined whether it could have been the act of miscreants for political reasons,” said a counter-terror official.
“The attack may have been staged by local sympathisers of the JMB in retaliation to the NIA’s Burdwan blast probe. It will also have to be determined whether it could have been the act of miscreants for political reasons,” said a counter-terror official.
An NIA source said, “Initial information, which we are verifying, indicates somebody threw an object that hit the boundary walls of the NIA office and there was a loud explosion. It may have been a bomb.”