NEW DELHI – An eight-year-old child was killed and at least nine otherpeople injured on Tuesday when a homemade bomb went off in a suburb of theIndian city of Kolkata, police said.
India’s eastern West Bengal state, of which Kolkata is the capital, has along history of political violence and targeted killings of rival partyactivists.
“The crude bomb exploded below a four-storey building near the market andinjured 10 persons, four of them seriously,” Barrackpore policecommissioner Rajesh Kumar Singh told AFP.
“An eight-year-old who sustained injuries in the blast died at thehospital. We are investigating it from all aspects,” he added, refusing toname any suspects.
Eyewitnesses described a “powerful explosion” to local media and said thatit shattered the windows of nearby buildings.
Police said that forensic teams were trying to gather evidence.
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The state´s dominant political players, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC)and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI-M, have tradedallegations of crude bomb attacks and other violence in the past.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s right wing Bharatiya Janata Party,which has started to make political inroads in the state in the last fewyears, has also accused rivals of violence.
A Press Trust of India report cited Panchu Roy, a local TMC politicianwhose office is inside the building where the blast happened, as sayingthat he was the actual target.
“It was a pre-planned blast…. They had planned to kill me and other TMCworkers, as it would create panic and help them gain (a) foothold in thearea,” he said, without naming any suspects. – APP/AFP
