The Trinamool Congress has strongly denied any links with Thursday’s Burdwan blast in which two people were killed.
TMC General Secretary and former Rail Minister Mukul Roy rejected the allegations made by oppositions that his party is involved in anti-nationalism acts.
“The comments by Biman Bose and the BJP are totally insensitive. The timing too is devious, especially at this juncture when Durga idols are still being immersed and the holy festival of Eid is to be held tomorrow,” said Mukul Roy.
“I don’t know how Biman Bose and the BJP leaders got the idea that there was a Trinamool Congress party office inside the premises from where police recovered the explosives. There is no footage or photographs available to support the allegations,” added Roy.
After the National Investigation Team (NIA) alleged that West Bengal police has not been co-operating with them in this investigation, both the CPM and the BJP said that TMC was involved in this incident and the police destroyed evidence and demanded probe into the “Trinamool-terror nexus”.
Police arrested 2 women from the same building where the explosions took place. The building which was allegedly owned by a Trinamool leader Nurula Hasan, had been used as Trinamool office at one point.
Police so far recovered some Trinamool flags, explosives and sensitive extremist documents.
“A bomb blast took place inside the home of a TMC leader. In that house people of Indian Mujahideen were living. Some substance exploded and after which it was told that NIA should be informed. But NIA was informed 24 hours later. The material which could have been used as the evidence was destroyed in river… Mamata Banerjee should tell that if that home belongs to a TMC leader or not? Why did your SP of Burdwan destroy the evidence?” BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh attacked TMC in Delhi.
“We have come to know that both the tenants and the landlord of the house at Khagragarh locality of the town where the explosion took place are close to the TMC. It is an ominous sign for us. It is surprising that the ruling Trinamool Congress is giving indulgence to the banned Muslim fundamentalists, which in turn is posing threat not only to the state but also to the entire nation,” Biman Bose had told reporters.
“Even as some arrests have been made, details are yet to be unearthed. We are sorry to say that the ruling party has connection with all disgruntled elements and organisations. We all need to be cautious,” Bose added.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri said, “The track record of state police in recent years does not augur well. Central government should interfere and act against the guilty.”
Initially, investigators was thinking of only Indian Mujahideen link, but now they are considering hand of another terror outfit in this blast. Among the documents were leaflets of al-Qaida’s Ayman al-Zawahiri and IM.
Times of India quoted a senior IB source as saying, “Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri had warned of setting up a new front, Qaedat al-Jihad, for the Indian subcontinent. ISIS, too, has a footprint in Bengal — four youths from Hyderabad who were trying to sneak in to Bangladesh en route to Iraq were intercepted by us. We will probe all angles.”
However, on Sunday the West Bengal chief Home secretary, Basudeb Banerjee, denied any terror link in the blast and said no Al Qaeda posters had been found at the blast site. He also denied allegations of non-coperation of the police with the NIA.
“We recovered a large amount of chemicals used in bombmaking and crude bombs along with some SIM cards and phones. No IED or RDX was recovered,” Banerjee said at the press conference.
“The standard rule is to defuse bombs if they are recovered. The bombs were defused by the bomb disposal squad of CID following all the rules. An assistant director of the Central Forensic Laboratory was present and his team had already visited the spot. Moreover, senior officers of central agencies are in touch,” he said.
“We did not find any poster related to Indian Mujahideen or any other terrorist outfit. Investigations are on,” Banerjee added.
Tags: Burdwan Blast TMC Trinamool Congress west bengal
