No arrests made in bomb attack on TMC minister; SIT collects evidence

Even as two days have passed since West Bengal minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Jakir Hossain was injured in an explosion in Murshidabad district, investigating agencies are yet to arrest anyone in the case.

The special investigation team (SIT) of the state police and forensic analysts visited the spot of the crime on Friday where they found a broken mobile, a burnt circuit and a strip of wire from the platform and railway tracks of Nimtita railway station, a police officer privy to the investigation said. “They have been sent for analysis. Whether the circuit and wire were used to trigger an IED (improvised explosive device) blast could be confirmed only after an analysis,” the officer said. Experts from both the central forensic science laboratory and the state forensic science laboratory also visited the spot to collect samples and take pictures of the blast site. Officials said that the blast had formed a small crater measuring around five inches in diameter on the concrete platform suggesting that it was a powerful explosion.

Hossain, who is the minister of state for labour, was critically wounded in a blast on Wednesday when he went to the Nimtita railway station to board a train to Kolkata. At least 26 others were also injured. The minister was shifted to a hospital in Kolkata where his condition was said to be stable but critical.