India: West Bengal Bomb Blast Kills 8

Paritosh Kanti Paul
2017.04.21
Kolkata
170421-IN-map-620.jpg Eight people were killed and four other injured in a bomb blast in a village in Labpur, West Bengal, April 21, 2017.
BenarNews

At least eight people were killed Friday when homemade crude bombs went off accidentally in the Indian state of West Bengal, police said.

The blast, which critically injured four others, occurred at the village of Darbarpur in Labpur, a sub-district of Birbhum district, about 130 km (80 miles) from state capital Kolkata.

“A gang of miscreants were making bombs on the outskirts of the village. Somehow the bombs exploded, killing four on the spot, while four others died on the way to the hospital,” Birbhum Superintendent of Police N. Sudheer Kumar told BenarNews.

The casualties were likely to increase, he said.

Police sources told BenarNews that an ongoing turf war over the control of the district’s dry riverbeds, where illegal sand mining is carried out, was the reason the rival gang members were making crude bombs.

Kumar, however, evaded questions on the sand mafia link, according to The Hindu newspaper.

“There are some rivalries in the area and clashes had been going on since Friday morning. However, police quickly reached the spot and brought the situation under control,” Kumar said.

There are about 80 illegal sand mines in Birbhum district that generate about 700 million rupees (U.S. $10.8 million) each month, according to reports.

Opposition parties in West Bengal allege that most of these sand mines are controlled by leaders of the state’s ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), and the turf war is a major reason for a growing factional feud in the party.

The TMC refuted the allegations and instead blamed the leftwing Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), its political rival, for Friday’s blast.

“The blast is the handiwork of CPI-M miscreants,” TMC district president Anubrata Mondal told BenarNews, while brushing aside theories of any rift in the party.

But Poltu Konra, the district’s CPI-M leader, squarely blamed “the TMC infighting” for the incident.

“It is a result of a clash between sand mafias of TMC party that has led to the loss of lives of innocent villagers,” he told BenarNews.

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