BENGALURU: The explosive which exploded at the Hubballi railway station on October 21 morning was a “crude explosive” and not a field bomb, which the farmers make to kill wild animals that stray inside the farms, highly placed sources told The New Indian Express. He said that the explosives were not “lethal” but reportedly had the potential to trigger panic at the railway station.
“The crude, lemon-shaped explosives were not field bombs as was being speculated earlier. They did not contain pellets, coins or shrapnels mixed with the explosives, which are normally found in the field bombs. The crude explosive comprised of ammonium nitrate, sulphur and carbon, which are readily available at firecracker units. They seem to be hurriedly put together by a novice,” the source added.
On October 22, TNIE had reported that the crude explosives comprised of ammonium nitrate, sulphur and carbon. The Hubballi police and the Internal Security Division (ISD) officers are sieving through the CCTV footage to identify the man, who had left behind the plastic bucket containing the explosives inside the Vijayawada-Hubballi Amaravati Express that morning.
According to highly placed sources, the police are not ruling out mischief behind the incident and investigating whether the combination of these explosives was used anywhere else in the country in the execution of crime, arson or anti-national activities.
“It is possible that the explosives were left inside the train with an intention to trigger panic,” he added. Ammonium nitrate is primarily used as a high-nitrogen fertilizer and also as an explosive. Sulphur is used as a plasticizer in explosives. Its use is restricted to gun powder.
The bucket containing the explosives was found abandoned in the last coach of the general compartment of the Vijayawada-Hubballi Amaravati Express, which had arrived at Hubballi station at 11.17am. The plastic bucket had ink scribblings of - ‘No BJP, No RSS’, ‘Kolhapur district’, ‘MLA’, ‘Gargoti’, ‘MSState’ and ‘Prakash Abhitkar’ written on it. The train had terminated at Hubballi and a Railway Protection Force (RPF) officer, who was checking the empty train, found an abandoned bucket in the coach. He had called the tea vendor Hussain Sab to take out the bucket and examine the contents. Hussain had picked one of them and squeezed it, when it exploded in his hand and injured him. As a result of the explosion, a glass pane of the station master’s office was also damaged,” the officer said.