NEW DELHI: The NIA team probing the Burdwan blast in West Bengal has recovered 40 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a suspect’s house in a thickly populated area.
NIA officials said the investigators, assisted by a team of the National Security Guards (NSG), recovered the IEDs after the interrogation of the accused pointed to the suspect’s links with those killed on October 2 in Khagragarh while making bombs. The NIA has also conducted raids at a shop and at the house of one of the accused, Hashem Moulla alias Badre Alam.
The investigators also collected swabs from the vehicle of the owner of the house where the blast had taken place. Investigators also seized a laptop from a shop at the blast site.
Officials said the arrested accused had provided some important leads, and that a suspect from Birbhum had also been questioned. A computer believed to have been used by the suspect was also seized from a shop in Birbhum. Meanwhile, the Centre rushed a company of Border Security Force to provide security to the NIA investigators leading the investigation in West Bengal and Assam.
Although the NIA had denied the reports that the police and CID were not cooperating, a senior official said the BSF company was sent after concerns related to the investigators’ safety were raised.
“The West Bengal Government’s lackadaisical approach to the Burdwan case is evident, and the Centre cannot take a chance since the case is getting bigger, and it is believed that the terrorists killed in Burdwan had clear links with militants in Maharashtra, Assam and Uttar Pradesh as well,” the official said.