ATS at blast site near railway track in Sant Kabir Nagar

GORAKHPUR/LUCKNOW: Explosion near railway tracks and recovery of four crude bombs led to disruption of rail services in Sant Kabir Nagar for a brief while on Tuesday morning. Though Sant Kabir Nagar district police chief ruled out terrorist strike stating that blast was of low-intensity, the anti-terrorist squad was put on the job to rule out foul play through probe.
DIG Laxmi Narayan Srivastava said a ragpicker of Nepali origin Raju was rummaging through a garbage heap 30-feet away from railway tracks around 10am.He was trying to open a packet forcibly with a boulder when the blast occurred, and he got injured seriously and was rushed to BRD medical college in Gorakhpur. Raju’s fingers were severed.
SP Hiral Lal was informed and reached the site. Bomb disposal squad was pressed into service. Three more live crude bombs were recovered inside the packet and were neutralised by soaking them in water.
IG ATS, Asim Arun said, “It did not look like the bombs had been left at the site to damage railway tracks. Such bombs are often used by criminals to settle personal scores but we are finding out who left the bombs at the site.”
Police were waiting for Raju to recuperate from shock before his statement could be recorded. Normal services resumed by 10.40am after inspection of tracks near the explosion site.