4 held for bomb blast on school roof in Bengal

Kolkata: Four persons were arrested in connection with a bomb blast in a school in Titagarh area in West Bengal’s North 24-Parganas district, a senior police officer said.

The accused, aged between 18-19 years, were picked up from Kamarhati and Titagarh areas around midnight, the officer of Barrackpore Police Commissionerate said.

”We are trying to explore all possible aspects by interrogating them. One of the arrested hails from Kamarhati while the rest are from Titagarh,” he said.

The crude bomb exploded on the roof of the school building on Saturday when classes were in progress.

There was no casualty in the incident, as students and teachers were in rooms located on the first two floors of the three-storeyed building, police had said.

The officer said preliminary investigation revealed that the accused had changed their initial plan to hurl a powerful crude bomb at the school gate, as the spot was crowded. They climbed onto the roof of an adjacent building to carry out the act, he said. The officer said three of those arrested were former students of the school.

Personal enmity between the accused and some other students of the school was believed to be the primary motive behind the incident.

He added that 10 crude bombs were found during a search operation at the residence of one of the accused. Meanwhile, BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said Saturday’s development points to the fact that “even school students cannot feel safe in Bengal”.

”The education sector has begun its final journey in the state under the Trinamool Congress rule… Youths are roaming around with pistols and bombs… as there are no jobs in West Bengal,” Ghosh claimed.

Countering him, TMC MP Sougata Roy said the police is doing its job, and an investigation is underway. “This should not be politicised by the BJP, which patronises miscreants,” the Dumdum MP alleged. On Saturday, BJP’s Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee had demanded a CBI probe into the incident.