Another blast in hills, food-laden truck destroyed after loot

Masked men set off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast at Kalimpong early today destroying a truck carrying food materials but no one was injured in the incident, police said.

Unidentified men stopped the truck, beat up the driver and the helper and asked them to leave the vehicle. They then looted the food materials from it.

Police said an IED was then planted underneath the truck and a blast was triggered.

"There are no reports of any casualty in the explosion. We are looking for the miscreants," a senior police official in Kalimpong said. This the fourth such incident in eight days.

The Darjeeling hills are in the midst of an indefinite shutdown which entered its 73rd day today in demand of a separate Gorkhaland state.

Today's explosion comes a day after a low-intensity blast was set off by unidentified people at Teesta Bazar area yesterday morning.

On Thursday, two blasts occurred in the hills.

Twin blasts rocked Darjeeling hills on August 19 in which one civic police volunteer was killed and two other people were injured.

The August 19 blasts were the first such incident since the indefinite shut down for Gorkhaland state began on June 15.

Bimal Gurung, the chief of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which is spearheading the agitation, was booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in connection with the August 19 blasts.