Four children were injured in a freak explosion when they opened a bag containing crude bombs near a stream in Hazaribagh district on Sunday.
The bombs are suspected to have been left behind by Maoist rebels during transportation for use during the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The Maoists are opposed to the democratic process and have already issued a diktat asking people to boycott the polls. Several government buildings, including schools, have been bomb by the rebels in the past few weeks.
The injured children - all aged below 10 years - have been admitted to a local hospital and said to be out of danger. Police later recovered six live bombs from the spot and defused them.
The incident spot at Laskari village in Barhi block is 45 km from here and around 150 km from capital Ranchi.
Sunday night’s explosion is the second incident in the state involving children. On Saturday four children of a charred to death after mounds of paddy husk accidentally caught fire at a village in Giridih district.
The suspicious-looking bag was first spotted by a villager Suresh Ram while working in his agricultural field on Sunday evening. “I removed the bag and kept it near the stream before returning home to inform the villagers,” police quoted Ram as saying. One of the injured children Pintu Kumar told police that they noticed fumes coming out from the bag and tried to open it out of curiosity. “Our team found six unexploded bombs from the spot,” said deputy superintendent of police Avinash Kumar.
{{/usCountry}}The suspicious-looking bag was first spotted by a villager Suresh Ram while working in his agricultural field on Sunday evening. “I removed the bag and kept it near the stream before returning home to inform the villagers,” police quoted Ram as saying. One of the injured children Pintu Kumar told police that they noticed fumes coming out from the bag and tried to open it out of curiosity. “Our team found six unexploded bombs from the spot,” said deputy superintendent of police Avinash Kumar.
{{/usCountry}}Police identified the injured children as Preetam Kumar, Deepak Kumar and Basant Kumar besides Pintu.