Bus blast: Police hunts for suspects

A day after an explosion in a private bus in Haryana, police are questioning several persons to find out who was carrying the chemical powder which had triggered the blast.

A 6-member IB team from Delhi also reached Fatehabad district, where the incident had occurred, and collected samples.

“We are investigating the matter and for this we have formed four teams. We have been questioning several local villagers and others in a bid to find out who could have been carrying the chemical powder whose samples have been sent to Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Madhuban. The sample report is awaited,” Fatehabad SP O P Narwal said on Wednesday.

He said it was possible that someone was carrying the chemical powder for scaring away birds from agricultural fields by causing an explosion.

“We are trying to reach to the person who was carrying this. We are yet to identify him, but we are hopeful to trace him soon. The injured and other passengers have not been able to say how the explosion occurred,” he said.

He said that an IB team from Delhi reached the spot and took some samples for analysis. Narwal said that police had identified a few retailers who sell this chemical powder to farmers.

The explosion took place in a bus on Tuesday at around 11 am near Bhuna in Fatehabad, following which panicstricken passengers jumped out. A couple had sustained injuries in the incident.

The explosion came two weeks after a low-intensity blast had taken place in a state-run bus near Pipli in Kurukshetra, leaving 12 passengers injured. Narwal, however, stressed that yesterday’s explosion bore no similarity to the earlier incident.

“One thing is clear that yesterday’s incident bore no similarity to the Pipli bus incident,” he said.

Haryana witnessed three low-intensity blasts this year excluding the one yesterday, two of which occurred in trains in Panipat. The explosion in the bus on May 26 had occurred when the vehicle was on its way from Sonepat to Chandigarh.

On January 16, a bomb blast had taken place in a passenger train at Panipat railway station. The explosive material was planted in a compartment next to the engine but there was no casualty.

On May 13, an explosion had rocked an EMU train which had reached Panipat from Delhi and had been moved to the yard. Again, there was no casualty.

Keeping in view the series of incidents, Haryana government Tuesday decided to install CCTV cameras in all State Roadways buses.