LUCKNOW: One person was hurt when a low intensity crude bomb went off near a railway track in Sant Kabir Nagar (Khalilabad) on Tuesday.
Panic gripped the area when the police recovered three more low intensity crude live bombs along the tracks just a few metres away from Khalialbad railway station.
As a precautionary measure, the traffic on the Khalialbad segment remained suspended for half an hour. A forensic team along with a heavy police contingent was present on the spot. A team of Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh police left for Khalilabad to conduct an inquiry into the recovery of bombs.
Raju Thapa, a ragpicker hailing from Siliguri, had been living in Khalilabad since his childhood. He was picking rag near the railway track when a low-intensity crude bomb exploded, said Khalilabad SP Hiralal. On getting information, senior police officials, including SP and DIG Lakshmi Narain Srivastava, rushed to the spot with heavy police force. The injured were immediately taken to a local hospital from where he was referred to Gorakhpur Medical College in a critical condition, said the SP. He added that the live bombs recovered looked like low-intensity "sutli bombs" or crude bombs.
However, both the DIG and SP ruled out the possibility of a terror attack or a sabotage bid as the intensity of the bomb was too low to harm the rail track. In-charge, bomb diffusing squad, Brij Bhan Tiwari said: “The bombs were of low intensity, capable of injuring a person but not powerful enough to harm the railway track.”
Meanwhile, secretary to GM North Eastern Railway, DK Khare, said that the incident occurred at 9.57 am and the movement of trains resumed at 10.30 am after thorough inspection of the tracks which were found to be in shape and no damage was done.”