Varanasi: Low-intensity blast creates panic

A low-intensity explosion, which turned out to be a 'cracker blast', created panic in Varanasi on Monday. No one was injured in the blast that took place in a garbage heap near the irrigation department office at Sigra in the heart of the city around 11am.

A low-intensity explosion, which turned out to be a 'cracker blast', created panic in Varanasi on Monday.
No one was injured in the blast that took place in a garbage heap near the irrigation department office at Sigra in the heart of the city around 11am.

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"The bomb disposal squad has clarified that the blast was due to a cracker,” said senior superintendent of police Jogendra Kumar. As news of the blast spread, police, along with sniffer dogs and bomb disposal squad personnel, reached the spot.

The squad scanned the entire area and ruled out use of a bomb.

Varanasi has been target for terrorists for many years. In the past, blasts at the Sankat Mochan temple and the Cantonment railway station (2006), the district court (2007) and the Sheetla ghat (2010) have claimed several lives.

Varanasi is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency.