Strongly refuting DMK leader M Karunanidhi’s remarks on the twin blasts at the Central railway station here, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday said the State police had interrogated ISI agent Zakir Hussain after his arrest, and had they obtained information from him about the terror attack, they would have taken immediate measures to prevent it.
The Chief Minister further rejected Karunanidhi’s claim that an unexploded pipe bomb had been found at the blast site.
Tracing the sequence of events leading to the blasts, the chief minister said in a statement that the Bangalore-Guahati Express arrived at the Central Railway Station in Chennai on Thursday, an hour-and-a-half behind schedule, when a bomb placed in S4 and S5 bogies exploded, killing one person and injuring 14.
The State police rushed to the spot and jointly began investigation with the Central Railway Protection Force, which exercised jurisdiction over incidents taking place in trains and railway stations. On her directive, the investigation was later transferred to the CB-CID.
Jayalalithaa said bomb and forensic experts, along with sniffer dogs, who went to the spot were trying to ascertain the type of device and the nature of explosives used in the blast with the help of a metal pipe and other objects seized from the spot. Further, the investigators were also scanning CCTV footage of all railway stations between Bangalore and Chennai in order to find out when the bombs was placed inside the train.
She pointed out that had the train’s arrival and departure from Chennai been on schedule, the explosion at 7.15 am would have occurred when the train was moving along the Andhra border. The CB-CID police were looking into that aspect too.
So far, no outfit had claimed responsibility for the blasts and the CB-CID and intelligence agency were jointly questioning the injured passengers and other witnesses.
Stating that ISI agent Zakir Hussain, who was arrested four days ago, had been interrogated the same day, the chief minister asserted that if the police had obtained any information about the blast plot, they would have acted immediately and prevented it.
The State police were exercising all precaution in this regard, she said and attacked Karunanidhi for acting in an irresponsible manner by trying to reap political dividends by claiming that the ISI agent had not been interrogated.
Rejecting the DMK leader’s claim that an unexploded pipe bomb had been recovered from the blast site, she said Karunanidhi had lost the moral right to comment on the train blast after failing to take suitable measures to completely eradicate terrorism when he was in power. The government was taking all steps to find out the perpetrators and bring them to justice, she added.