PATNA, Oct 27:
Five people were killed today in seven low intensity serial blasts in Patna of which six bombs went off in and around the venue of Narendra Modi’s mega rally at Gandhi Maidan shortly before his address before a huge gathering.
A total of 83 people were also injured in the bomb explosions between 9:30 am and 12:45 pm in which timers were also used.
Just a couple of hours before the six multiple explosions, a crude bomb went off in a newly constructed toilet at Platform 10 at the Patna railway station, two km from the venue BJP’s ‘Hunkar(battle cry) rally’ of the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate.
Four people have been detained in Patna, police said, adding that one of them caught fleeing from the blast at the railway station appears to be the prime suspect. Some documents and a list of telephone numbers were recovered from the prime suspect whose identity was not revealed.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and appealed for calm. He spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and asked him to speedily probe the blasts and ensure that the perpetrators are punished.
Five people died from blast injuries, according to Vimal Karak,Deputy Superintendent of Patna Medical College Hospital.
Nitish said the timing of the blasts on the day of his Gujarat counterpart’s rally was “very worrying”, adding it appeared to be a “deliberate attempt” to vitiate the atmosphere in the State.
Nitish said of the 83 injured who had come to Patna Medical College and Hospital, 38 were under treatment and the rest discharged.
Stating that the bombs which exploded were of low intensity, DGP Abhyanand said the seven blasts took place between 9:30 am and 12:45 pm in which timers were also used.
The DGP said six live bombs were also recovered and defused by the bomb disposal squad.
Two unexploded bombs each were recovered from near Mahatma Gandhi’s statue, the twin towers–both close to the rally venue–and at the rail platform toilet.
Five low intensity blasts occurred on the outer periphery of the Gandhi Maidan, Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami told in Delhi. One bomb went off before the Eliphistine cinema hall on the western side of the rally venue, police said.
Tens of thousands of people had gathered at Gandhi Maidan to hear Modi who proceeded with his address as schedule even as plumes of smoke billowed from a couple of explosion sites.
Nitish said the explosions could be the handiwork of a terrorist organisation.
Asked at a news conference in Patna whether any terrorist outfit was behind the blasts, Nitish did not rule it out.
Union Minister of State for Home RPN Singh said it was too early to say whether the explosions were a terror attack.
“Only after proper investigations, we would be able to tell who could be behind the blast,” he told.
Singh said the Home Ministry had no prior information about any possible bomb attack in Patna and that the State Government will be able to tell whether it had any intelligence input.
Nitish, however, said there was no intelligence input either from the Centre or from the concerned agency in Bihar.
BJP leader Sushma Swaraj blamed the blasts on “gross intelligence failure”.
Meanwhile, the Jharkhand police said some of the suspects hailed from Jharkhand.
“Many of the suspects in the serial bomb blasts in Patna are from Jharkhand,” Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order) S N Pradhan told in Ranchi.
Meanwhile, Modi today launched a frontal attack on his bete noire Nitish Kumar on his home turf, calling the Bihar Chief Minister an opportunist and hypocrite who “betrayed and backstabbed” socialist stalwarts like Jaiprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia.
Visiting Bihar for the first time after Nitish kept him away from poll campaign during the period of the BJP-JD(U) alliance, the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate repeatedly attacked him for snapping of the ties that lasted 17 years.
Modi alleged that Nitish was playing hide and seek with Congress, against whom his mentors JP and Lohia fought all their lives, and was dreaming of becoming the Prime Minister.
“One who shunned Jaiprakash, why can’t he leave BJP. He fought all his life to free the nation from the Congress and the one who claims to be Lohia’s disciple has stabbed him in his back and is now playing hide and seek with Congress. Whether his followers will forgive him or not, the souls of Lohia and JP will never forgive his deeds,” Modi said addressing a mammoth public meeting here at the Gandhi Maidan.
JP, the tallest of Indian socialists, had spearheaded the anti-Emergency movement that culminated in the fall of Indira Gandhi Government and installation of the first non-Congress dispensation at the Centre under Morarji Desai in 1977.
Without taking Nitish’s name and referring to him derisively as “friend”, Modi attacked him for not allowing him to campaign in Bihar in the last Assembly polls and said he had accepted the “humiliation” for the sake of not allowing “Jungle Raj” in Bihar again.
Modi vowed to oust JD(U) which had quit NDA opposing his elevation as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.
In his over 40-minute speech, Modi started with Bhojpuri and interspersed it with Maithli and Magehi–the three main dialects of the State.
Taking a jibe at the Bihar Chief Minister, Modi cited an instance where he and Nitish were sharing a table at a luncheon by the Prime Minister during a meeting of Chief Ministers in Delhi and Nitish was “not eating and was uncomfortable and kept looking around”.
“I understood the matter and told him, there are no cameras around. You can have your food….There is a limit to hypocrisy,” he said.
Modi also attacked the Congress saying it was misguiding people in the name of secularism and pitched for Hindu-Muslim unity for the development of the nation, saying neither of them wanted to fight each other and need to together fight poverty instead. (PTI)
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