Bengal: Crude bomb explodes in local train, at least 15 hurt

At least 15 people were injured in West Bengal after a crude bomb exploded in a local train on the Sealdah-Krishnanagar line early on Tuesday morning. The blast, which left three passengers critically injured, exposed the glaring lapses in the passenger security system in local trains. The explosion took place in the first Krishnanagar local that leaves Sealdah, one of the most crowded terminals in Kolkata, at 3.30 am. More than a dozen people were injured after the crude bomb that was carried by an 18-year-old notorious criminal, went off when he was scuffling with another criminal inside the running train. According to eyewitnesses, the bomb exploded at round 3.55 am, minutes after the train left Titagarh station and started approaching Barrcakpore, around 25 km from the city. The injured persons include – Swapan Ray (34), Uttam Kumar Chakraborty (54) , Mohammed Mukhtar (50), Raja Das (18), Aloke Sil (23), Nanda Kumari Devi, S M Ismail (35), Souvick Banerjee (21) and Rita Banerjee (45). Six of the injured are critical and have been admitted to the B R Singh Hospital in Sealdah. The blast has brought local gang rivalries out in the open and had shown how gang members board passenger trains with weapons and crude bombs with ease. Atiful Sheikh, alias Raja, alias Rajua, is suspected to have been carrying the crude bombs along with sharp weapons. In the blast, Raja’s right hand was blown below the wrist and his right eye was severely damaged. He was involved in a scuffle with another person, member of a rival gang. According to Government Rail Police (GRP) records, Raja is a notorious criminal of Titagh and he has several cases of snatching and wagon breaking against him. Senior police officials of GRP, RPF and officials from Army barrack in Barrackpore rushed to the spot after the blast. Later in the day, R K Gupta, general manager of Eastern Railways visited the spot. “Our security personnel are always alert and they are deployed in the stations because these kind of incidents keep happening here, however, this is the first time when an explosion took place inside a rail compartment,” said Gupta.   NDTV