Bomb blast/scare grip in city
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, December 15 2009: An abandoned plastic bucket discovered at Keishampat Junction this morning put traffic to a standstill as police personnel cordoned off the zone fearing it might contain explosive device.

Even as explosive experts later declared the area safe on finding out that no bomb was inside the bucket, unidentified persons lobbed a hand-grenade at a fuel outlet in Khurai while in the evening hours a blast was set off near a house in Chingmeirong Mamang Leikai.

The last blast took place at about 5.40 pm, inches away from the kitchen block of one Mayengbam Binod (45), who reportedly sells mobile recharge vouchers at Gambhir Singh Shopping Arcade.

The Chinese hand-grenade in the NRL station premises that prompted (bottom) sit-in-protest.

Sound of the blast effected Binod's wife namely Seema Devi who was at the kitchen requiring admission to JN Hospital.

The explosion created holes at the wall of the house made of CI sheet besides scattering kitchen items.

Binod is informed to be the elder brother of Premchand, whose house also came under a bomb attack on December 11 night.

Premchand reportedly works as a consultant of an NGO named Population Health Institute.

The Keishampat Junction chaos ensued from around 11 am when the large-size plastic bucket with lid intact, which normally contains printing ink, was found at the media on the northern end (Wahengbam Leikai direction) of the busy thoroughfare.

The police teams barricaded the spot with bamboo fencing and diverted traffic that subsequently led to congestion even in the nearby by-lanes.

As the traffic jam increased by about 1 pm, experts of the Police Bomb squad arrived and scanned the container using computerised x-ray imaging machine before declaring that there is no bomb inside.

police speculate the bucket to have been mistakenly left behind by someone from the nearby locality after discarding waste at the dumping site.

While the Keishampat incident gave some anxious moments to both the local populace and general commuters, employees of NRL Energy Station, Khurai as well as many customers had a miraculous escape as a Chinese hand-grenade lobbed to the complex of the fuel outlet failed to explode.

The hand-grenade flung at around 2.45 pm was later discovered that it had no detonator even though the lever was found in the complex of the fuel outlet.

Police sources suspect the bomb to have been hurled from the northern side (Khurai Thangjam Leikai) of the fuel pump.

Bomb experts carried away the grenade and had reportedly exploded the same at a safe location.

According to the pump owner namely Thoudam Devkumar of Khurai thoudam Leikai many armed outfits had served demand (extortion) notes to the fuel agency but could not speculate which group was involved in today's incident.

As news spread of unidentified persons launching bomb attack at the fuel outlet several womenfolk of the nearby localities came out of their homes and staged a protest demonstration.

Pointing out that even customers used to be advised to switch off their mobile phones upon entering the complex, some protestors condemned the act of launching bomb attack at such a place where huge quantity of highly inflammable substances are being kept.

They described the attack as an act of terrorism and called upon all to abandon insane conduct.