The Madurai police were in for a rude shock on Thursday evening when they found a high intensity bomb planted inside a ‘cave-like’ structure between the Kasi Viswanatha shrine and the Hazrath Sulthan Sikkanathar Badusha Dargarh atop the Thiruparankundram hill, located nearly 10 km from the city.
“We are in shock and are unable to comprehend what is happening in Madurai,” said a police inspector who was present at the spot for nearly an hour, while the city’s Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) led by Inspector Subbaiah defused the explosives.
The senior police officer said the material seized from the spot included 500 grams of gun powder, 16 batteries, jute thread to cover the explosive material, 500 ml of petrol, a cellphone, phone batteries and five timer clocks.
All these items have been safely kept inside a plastic bucket, the officer said. The hill was located adjacent the famed Thiruparankundram temple.
Bases on a tip off from an anonymous caller, a special team led by Special Investigating Team (SIT) DSP Karthikeyan rushed to the spot.
“The explosive materials were found in between the Thirupparankundram Murugan temple and the Hazrath Sulthan Sikkanathar Badusha Dargah,” a police official confirmed.
Thiruparangundram DSP Jeyachandran and Inspector Madasamy and other officials from the district headquarters were present at the spot.
A senior police officer said that the bomb’s timer was set for 11 ‘o’ clock and that the petrol bottle and gun powder, covered in the jute ball, were connected by a fuse wire. “If it would have gone off, it would have caused damage to both the temple and the dargah,” a police official said.
After the BDDS managed to defuse the bomb, the materials were brought to the Avaniyapuram police station, where Madurai SP S Balakrishnan examined them.
Explosive devices have been planted in Madurai on six occasions in the recent past -- three have exploded so far.
On May 1, just 10 days before BJP’s conference in the temple town -- senior leaders, including L K Advani, were to attend-- a low intensity bomb planted inside the carrier box of an abandoned bicycle exploded near a temple at Anna Nagar. In October last year, a pipe bomb was detected on Advani’s ‘Rath Yatra’ route, creating anxious moments for the top brass of the city police.