KOLKATA: In view of the Burdwan bomb blast that had exposed the well-laid network of Bangladeshi Jihadi groups across the State and the subsequent busting of illegal arms factories, West Bengal has set up a ‘State Bomb Centre’ to deal with all kinds of threats from bombs ranging from crude ones to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) mostly used by terror outfits and Maoist rebels.
The proposal to create a wing exclusively to deal with bombs was sent by the State CID to deputy inspector general Surajit Kar Purakayastha, who approved it, said sources in the CID. The ‘State Bomb Centre’ will be under the command of a Deputy Superintendent of Police. “A variety of bombs were recovered from different parts of the State after the Burdwan blast. Lives of personnel of the State police were lost due to unsafe bomb disposal techniques. Hence, the CID sent a proposal to create an exclusive agency to deal with advanced bombs used by terror groups,” said a CID official.
“Focus would be on IEDs that have repeatedly been used by terrorists in blasts in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Varanasi and by Maoists in central India and Jharkhand. The nature of blasts in foreign countries will also be studied by the centre,” said a CID official. “The State Bomb Centre will be in direct contact with the National Security Group (NSG). There would be continuous coordination with NSG for exchange of information to make the fight against terror foolproof. Officials from the centre will train State police officers to deal with bombs,” he added.
Apart from being centred in the CID headquarters in Bhabani Bhavan in Kolkata, a regional centre will be operational in Siliguri due to the city’s strategic location in the ‘chicken’s neck corridor’ — the meeting place of the international borders of Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Also, frequent low-intensity bomb blasts, allegedly triggered by Kamtapur Liberation Organisation rebels, have been reported from the northern part of the State.
“The centre will keep track of all bomb-related cases pending in different courts in the State,” the official added.