Kalimpong>Forensic team at blast spot

Kalimpong, July 29/TT: A three-member team of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory from Calcutta arrived here today to probe into the kerosene stove blast at Motor Stand on Tuesday.

The floor of a North Bengal State Transport Corporation bus was partially damaged in the explosion caused by the stove apparently kept beneath the vehicle’s rear portion. The blast that occurred at 2.45am also shattered the ventilators of the corporation’s ticket counter at the stand.

The CFSL team studied the bus that bore the brunt of the minor blast. Even as the forensic experts were carrying out their investigation, the inspector general of police, north Bengal, Ranbir Kumar, reached the spot and interacted with them.

“The CFSL team is here and investigating the matter,” was all that Kumar told a team of waiting reporters. He refused comment on a report that appeared in a vernacular daily today, saying an obscure organisation had claimed responsibility for the blast. “We have to verify the report. This is unconfirmed now and we can’t comment on it,” he said.

The newspaper said an organisation calling itself the Underground Liberation Association had claimed responsibility for the blast.

A person identifying himself as M. Thehgeem called up the newspaper’s office and said he was the chief of the ULA and the blast had been carried out to protest the betrayal of the people of the hills and the Dooars and the Terai by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha

Intelligence sources, however, were not willing to give much credence to the obscure organisation or the man claiming to be its chief.

“One person calls up a newspaper and makes a claim, and it becomes big news. Both the man and the organisation appear to be fictitious. This appears to be a work of a mischief monger. We are trying to trace the caller,” said a source.